Obama warns democracy 'may not survive' in Arizona if election deniers win

Former President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that if election deniers running for statewide office in Arizona win next week, "democracy as we know it" may die there.

“If you’ve got election deniers serving as your governor, as your senator, as your secretary of state, as your attorney general, then democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona,” Obama said at a rally in Phoenix. “That’s not an exaggeration. That is a fact.”

Obama’s remarks came as Democrats scramble to avert a victory in next week’s gubernatorial election by Kari Lake, a former TV anchor and one of the GOP’s most prominent election deniers. She has said she would not have certified the 2020 election, while hedging about whether she will accept the results of her own contest.

Lake is running slightly ahead of Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor, in recent polls. Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, has denied the results of the 2020 election while more recently calling Biden the “legitimate president.” State Rep. Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state, is a celebrity in election conspiracy circles.

Obama’s remarks fell in line with a refrain of Democratic leaders in the closing days of the midterm elections that democracy is at risk, with Republicans in numerous states still advancing former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

But Lake’s false claims about the election have taken on a special significance for Democrats, with speculation that she could be a future presidential or vice presidential contender.

Telling his audience on Wednesday that Lake interviewed him when she was a local news anchor and he was president in 2016, Obama cast her as an opportunist.

“If we hadn’t just elected somebody whose main qualification was being on TV, you could see maybe giving it a shot,” he said. “What’s the worst that could happen? Well now we know! It doesn’t just work out just because somebody’s been on TV.”

He added, “It turns out being president or governor is about more than snappy lines and good lighting.”