Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won’t say if she’ll accept losing results of midterms

Republican Kari Lake wouldn’t say if she would accept the election results if she loses her gubernatorial bid in Arizona next month – and Democrat Katie Hobbs is still refusing to debate ahead of Election Day.

‘I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result,’ Lake told CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash on Sunday morning.

Bash followed up by asking if Lake would accept the results if she loses – but the candidate refused to directly answer the question.

‘I’m going to win the election,’ Lake pushed back.

‘And I will accept that result, because the people of Arizona will never support and vote for a coward like Katie Hobbs who won’t show up on a debate stage,’ she said.

Lake, in her defense, also slammed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for refusing to admit she lost against Republican Governor Brian Kemp in the 2018 elections.

‘In 2018, Stacey Abrams never conceded – she still hasn’t,’ Lake said. ‘I don’t hear CNN calling her an election denier.’

‘We have the right, it’s protected with our First Amendment, to question our government and question elections.’

Lake is endorsed by Trump and vying to keep the governor’s mansion in Arizona red as Governor Doug Ducey ends his tenure. She has repeated the former president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen

Lake, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has embraced his claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and rigged by Democrats to keep him from winning reelection and instead propel Joe Biden to the White House.

Hobbs, who is facing off with Lake for Arizona governor in the November 8 midterm elections, has refused to participate in a PBS debate with her Republican challenger.

The Democrat says that the debate would be a ‘spectacle’ and told CNN in her own interview on Sunday morning that her television interviews are an OK alternative for a head-to-head debate with Lake.

The candidate said she’s able to talk through the issues with television hosts like Bash better than she would be able to do in a room where she felt she would be ‘interrupted’ and ‘shouted over’.

‘She only wants a scenario where she can control the dialogue,’ Hobbs said of Lake. ‘She’s the one afraid of talking to voters.’

Democrat Arizona gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs is refusing to debate Lake ahead of the midterms on November 8, claiming her opponent is looking for a ‘spectacle’ rather than a substantive debate

Hobbs has called Lake a ‘conspiracy theorist’ when asked about a potential debate even though Bash noted that ‘a lot of Democrats are questioning your decision.’

Arizona is one of the states that could decide the fate of the U.S. Senate – and the governor’s races help show the pulse of the direction states are heading ahead of a potential reelection big by both Biden and Trump in 2024.

The governor’s race in Arizona, a key battleground state, is considered a toss up, according to Cook Political Report.

After trailing by between three and seven percentage points for much of the race, Lake has recently pulled ahead of Hobbs in polls just weeks ahead of the midterm election – especially after Hobbs refused to debate.

Currently, Lake is ahead of Hobbs by nearly 1 percent in an average of polls.