Kari Lake Confirms She’s Taking Election Lawsuit to State Supreme Court

Arizona Republican candidate Kari Lake speaks with supporters at a rally in Phoenix on Nov. 3, 2022. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake indicated she is still planning to take her election-related lawsuit to the state Supreme Court after an appellate court tossed her suit last week.

“If they think we are going to surrender when something was stolen from us, they are messing with the wrong Americans,” Lake told supporters during an event in Lake Havasu City on Saturday, according to the Mojave Daily News. “I want you to know that we are taking this fight to the Arizona Supreme Court and we will fight in every legal avenue that we can right now.”

Lake added during the event that she “didn’t expect them to rule for us so we’re taking this to the Arizona Supreme Court,” the outlet reported. “They have the power to make this right and I hope they will look at the Constitution, look at how the state is being torn apart and show that courage to do the right thing.”

Despite the two court setbacks, Lake signaled that she believes her lawsuit will ultimately prevail in the court system. If the Arizona Supreme Court doesn’t take up her case or rejects her case, Lake did not indicate how she would proceed.

“I don’t want to just say that I have hope with our case because our case is so strong, it truly is and the law is on our side,” said Lake, a former television journalist who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. “I have confidence in our cases, our attorneys have confidence in the case.”

Without providing a specific time-table, Lake said she will appeal to the Supreme Court “hopefully in the next couple of weeks or so.”

Lake’s comments on Saturday built upon a Twitter post she made on Feb. 16, the day the Appellate Court rejected her suit. “I told you we would take this case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” she wrote. “Buckle up, America!”

Her opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs, was sworn-in as governor last month. State data shows Hobbs had 17,000 more votes than Lake.

In the months since the election, Lake has appeared at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, where she spoke with members of the Republican National Committee to vote against Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. A more recent swing through Iowa sparked speculation about whether she may run for president or angle for a role as Trump’s running mate if he clinches the GOP nomination again.

The flurry of activity comes as Lake has suggested she might run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), a former Democrat. An aide to the Republican said she recently met with Senate Republican officials in Washington, D.C., but few details were provided.

When asked by Charlie Kirk earlier this month if she is “entertaining” a run for Sinema’s seat, Lake said, “Yes, I am entertaining it. I mean my number one priority is our court case, and I have full confidence in our court case and I hope we will get a judge to do the right thing.” Meanwhile, she has often targeted Sinema and Rep. Reuben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who also announced he’s running for Sinema’s seat.

Sinema has not said whether she’ll run for a second term, a decision that could have a monumental impact on the battle for control of the Senate. Democrats have expressed alarm that a three-way race between Sinema, a Democrat, and a Republican will scramble the formula that’s worked so well for them, creating an opening for a candidate like Lake.

Katie Hobbs, recently sworn-in as governor, is seen in a photo dated Dec. 5, 2022. Ross D. Franklin/Pool/AP Photo

Lake was a news anchor for nearly 30 years in the Phoenix market. She left the Fox affiliate in 2021, saying journalism had strayed into advocacy. She began her campaign for governor a short time later before she was endorsed by Trump.

Lawsuit Rejected

In her lawsuit, Lake asserted that a number of problems emerged in Maricopa County on Election Day, citing publicly made statements by county officials that there were technical issues with vote tabulation machines that disenfranchised voters who cast ballots for her. Her team, citing pollster Richard Baris, said that Election Day voters trended Republican.

However, the three-judge panel on Feb. 16 wrote that “election results are not rendered uncertain unless votes are affected ‘in sufficient numbers to alter the outcome of the election,'” and said that “this rule requires a competent mathematical basis to conclude that the outcome would plausibly have been different, not simply an untethered assertion of uncertainty.”

Referring to Baris’s previous testimony that Election Day voters were mostly Republican, the court wrote that he “failed to provide any reasonable basis for using survey responses or non-responses to draw inferences about the motivations or preferences of people who did not vote.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.