Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake pleaded no contest on Tuesday in a defamation lawsuit brought against her by a state election worker whom she accused of rigging the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Lake, a Republican, refused to concede after losing the race to Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs and was later sued by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, also a Republican, for lying about widespread election fraud.
The 2024 Senate candidate’s attorneys filed a motion to forfeit the case on Tuesday and requested a county judge hold a speedy hearing to assess monetary damages, a copy of the filing reported by 12 News shows.
A close ally of former president Donald Trump, Lake alleged that the Arizona election official had himself injected “300,000 bogus ballots” into the final vote tally and misprinted ballots “so that the tabulator would jam” on Election Day 2022.
Richer claimed he had been subjected to harassment, “threats of violence, and even death” as a result of Lake’s “knowing and malicious falsehoods,” according to a complaint filed last year, which was reported by the Arizona Republic.
“It was a lie. It was always a lie. She did it to get your $25. Or to fire you up. But it was all a lie,” Richer posted on X after Lake moved to forfeit the case. “There were no ‘300,000 fraudulent early ballots’ etc. She defamed me. But she also lied to you.”
Richer lamented that the “millions of people” who believed Lake’s lies “won’t get their due.”
“Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies,” he continued.
Trump, 77, made similar allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election blocking his path to victory, which have resulted in two criminal indictments ahead of his own race against President Biden.
Lake, who lost the gubernatorial race by more than 17,000 votes, ripped the lawsuit as “ludicrous” and wrote on X it was aimed at trying “to stop me and bleed me dry.”
“The political elite will do anything to hold onto power and STOP outsiders like me,” she said. “Taking part in this lawfare just legitimizes it.”
“Instead, I will continue to focus on the issues that matter to the people of Arizona: securing the border, bringing back our economy, and improving healthcare and education,” she added.
Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego is challenging Lake in November for the US Senate seat of retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and became an independent.
In a March Emerson College poll, Gallego held a one-point lead over Lake, but the Republican firebrand topped her Democratic opponent by four points in a February poll.
Along with closely watched GOP challenges to Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the Arizona election will determine whether Republicans retake control of the Senate in 2025.
