Months after Kari Lake’s defeat to Katie Hobbs in Arizona’s race for governor—Ms. Lake is still in denial and won’t let any of us forget it.

She has filed numerous legal claims that have ranged from questioning Arizona’s election procedures, the actual vote tallies as well as the results of several legitimate audits.

Ms. Lake, during her campaign, liked to proclaim that she was a journalist (she was a local news anchor) and her gubernatorial podium talking points included one of the most vocal election denier mantra’s ever—even as evidence of election fraud never surfaced over Donald Trump’s claims that he didn’t lose to President Joe Biden. 

But Lake, always the Trump loyalist, adopted the election denier stance as her own—big time.  

Still, at this point, one would think that the “journalist” in Lake should at least be aware that a growing number of people in Arizona—including many in her own party and some who even voted for her, are getting sick and tired of the embarrassing and costly whining and would really like her to move on. 

She’s had her day in court/s—and she’s had it at the expense of Arizona taxpayers. 

There seems to be little hope, at least from the majority of those who spoke with Northeast Valley News, that Lake will ever accept defeat. 

Last week Kari Lake lost yet another court battle in her effort to overturn Democrat Katie Hobbs’s victory. Lake continues to deny her loss even though she was defeated by more than 17,000 votes. 

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled that Lake had not provided evidence of misconduct in the signature-verified results from early ballots.

In an earlier ruling in December, a claim was rejected that defective printers and other issues with the 2022 election were “intentional misconduct,” and the ruling was upheld February by an appeals court.

In March, the state’s high court declined to hear the appeal of Lake’s Feb. filing but the Arizona Supreme Court sent her claim challenging the signature verification back to the trial court. 

Ultimately after a three-day trial, Judge Thompson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer,  found “no clear and convincing evidence or preponderance of evidence that such misconduct was committed by ‘an officer making or participating in a canvas,” according to the ruling and reported by the Associated Press. 

He also found no evidence that alleged misconduct affected the election’s outcome. 

“I’m so sick and tired of Kari Lake’s whining,” said longtime registered Republican Nathan Richman of Phoenix, “I actually voted for her, but I will never vote for Lake again.”

When Northeast Valley News asked some Valley voters of their impression of Kari Lake, the responses usually came with chuckles or eye rolls.

Only one woman, who only wanted to identify herself as a “staunch Lake supporter ”still believes that Lake was the victim of an organized cover up and is certain that the Democrats had something to do with it. 

The majority of Valley voters we spoke with responded unfavorably about Lake’s continued denial and anger over her election loss and the continued “fraud” allegations as well as the growing cost to taxpayers. 

One young voter, Kelli Howard, who registered to vote for the first time after the Roe v Wade decision, told Northeast Valley News, “I think a lot of people expected Kari Lake to deny losing because she talked about winning so much during her campaign and that if she lost she would never accept it—and she hasn’t.”