Kari Lake’s Path to Victory Narrows in the Arizona Governor’s Race

The Arizona governor’s race between Katie Hobbs, the Democrat, and her Republican opponent, Kari Lake, remains tight early Monday, with Ms. Hobbs maintaining a slight lead.

Results released from Maricopa County on Sunday evening appeared to narrow Ms. Lake’s path to victory. She won only 55 percent of the vote in that batch — less than she needed to mount a comeback — even though that group of ballots was thought to be Republican-friendly.

After the vote tallies were released on Sunday, Ms. Hobbs’s campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, called her the “favorite to become the next governor of Arizona.”

“Katie has led since the first round of ballots were counted,” Ms. DeMont said, adding that with Sunday’s results, “it’s clear that this won’t change.”

It was an unusual statement from the Hobbs campaign, which had previously only urged voters to stay patient and wait for results.

Ms. Lake, by contrast, has been projecting a big win for days and has suggested election officials were slow-walking the results on purpose, baseless accusations that prompted Republican elected officials to ask Ms. Lake to tone down the rhetoric.

If the Hobbs campaign’s confidence is merited, there’s a decent chance that news organizations will be able to make a projection in the race for Arizona governor on Monday.

Only around 160,000 votes remain to be counted; around 120,000 votes were counted in the state on Sunday.