WATCH: Trump-Backed Kari Lake Prematurely Declares Victory in Arizona Republican Governor Primary

Kari Lake is the Trump-backed and election-denying GOP candidate running for Arizona Governor, and true to form, prematurely declared victory Wednesday morning before all votes were counted.

The former local news anchor turned Republican firebrand addressed a throng of her supporters in the 1 AM hour assembled at a Scottsdale hotel, and with less than 70% of the vote counted and nary a four-figure lead, had the temerity to say, “there is no path to victory for my opponent and we won this race period.” She then reiterated her preemptive and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, adding, “but there’s a ton of problems with the system.”

Writing for the Arizona Republic, Stacey Barchenger reports more detail:

“I wanted to come out here tonight, I wanted to say, ‘Wow, we already have the final results,'” she said. “But we know how our election systems work and they don’t work well. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m standing here.”

She cast a ballot shortage in Pinal County as something more than the result of “unprecedented demand for in-person ballots,” as county officials said earlier in the day.

“They knew we were going to have record turnout because we aren’t going to take it anymore,” Lake said. “One hour into voting they ran out of ballots? What the hell is going on? What in the hell is going on? This is why we’re in this race. This is why we have this movement right here.”

At the time of publishing this story, Lake has a slight but not significant lead over her opponent Karrin Taylor Robson. With 80% of the vote counted, she is up just over 10,000 votes, a lead which she seems a favorite to hold and win the race, though it is still statistically too close to call definitively.

This is why her preemptive declaration of victory and flouting of election norms is seen as so dangerous, and while the election result denying behavior of her political mentor, former President Donald Trump is seen by so many as a pernicious action that is causing serious harm to America’s electoral system and democracy itself.

Watch above via Fox10 News Arizona.