Arizona governor election: Katie Hobbs takes early lead over Andy Biggs

Yeah, now turning to the governor's race tonight, Republican challenger Andy Biggs, as we mentioned, taking on Governor Katie Hobbs. Yeah, let's check in live with Nicole Christine, who's been following this governor's campaign for us tonight. Nicole, set the scene for us there. Well, as you can imagine, Steve and Mark, a very excited crowd here. Just a few moments ago, they put up this gubernatorial race and the results so far, as you mentioned, Governor Katie Hobbs with a healthy lead over Congressman Andy Biggs. There was a large amount of applause. People are very excited. It's been very lively and loud here. As you went through those results, obviously a lot of the Democratic candidates within the state And in some of those congressional races, getting out to that healthy lead... And so the crowd here, very excited about this and saying that they are ready and expecting this blue wave and they're excited to see it actually coming to fruition so far this year. It's just a packed crowd here. So right now, as you mentioned, Governor Katie Hobbs with nearly a 20 percent lead over Andy Biggs. This race for governor has brought a lot of people out to this watch party tonight. Governor Hobbs and John Giles, Mesa's mayor and her running mate for Lieutenant Governor, Did make an appearance earlier this night. People reacting as you can hear to more results throughout the state. Now Governor Hobbs and John Giles did ask for patience from the public and they know that results may take a while but as you can hear they are liking what they are seeing right now. Now, Giles would hope to make history tonight as Arizona's first lieutenant governor. We spoke to several Democratic members of Congress representing the Grand Canyon State. Here's what they had to say about the campaign that Hobbs and Giles have run. Well, I think she's a proven leader and she's worked hard to try to improve people's lives and in a challenging environment. I mean, the Republicans in the State House and State Senate have, you know, sent to her desk a lot of bad legislation and she's, you know, had to deal with that. Thank you very much for that. But I feel like Arizonans really appreciate the work she's done. I admire Katie Hobbs. I think she's done a great job. This campaign, this campaign that she's run for re-election. She has been on message and disciplined. She has run a professional, spectacular campaign, focused in on the issues that the people of Arizona care about. I think she's going to win big tonight, and she deserves to win big tonight. Results not finalized yet but I think the volume and the amount of applause that we continue to hear speaks for itself. The AZ Dems very happy tonight with the results as they've come down so far. Live in Phoenix, Nicole Christine, Fox 10 News. All right Nicole, thank you. In the meantime, Republican Andy Biggs speaking just in the past few minutes. Yeah, quite a speech. Let's check in with Jacob Luthi following the Biggs campaign tonight. Hey Jacob. Yeah, Steve, Mark, I could hear in my ear the sound from the watch party that Nicole's at. I've got to say it's the exact opposite here. Andy Biggs is right in front of me right now. He is leaving. He's greeting supporters. He said that the numbers just aren't where they're at or where they're supposed to be tonight. Earlier today, I spoke with the senior advisor. He told me that they were hoping that those Election Day returns were going to be strong for them because they knew those early voting numbers would lean Democratic. He says they just didn't see the numbers that they're expecting. It was as close to a concession speech as I could say it was. I mean, he says that Andy Biggs said that he has won by nine votes before. So he says that he's a patient man. He says he's willing to wait and keep watching the results. From him, from Sena Kerr, as well as we heard from Warren Peterson, all pretty much talking about the work now starts to try and take back this state, they say, because they believe that the numbers aren't good for them. Now, some things that we heard that they didn't get, as I mentioned before, they didn't get the turnout they wanted, but they also talked a lot about couldn't be prouder of the race they won. And again, he was brutally honest with the crowd tonight. He said he wasn't going to lie to them. He wasn't going to sugarcoat it. He says the numbers just aren't where they want it to be, where they expected them to be. And we're seeing this statewide here in Arizona. We're seeing it play out across the country. And so Andy Biggs has just walked away, and we'll hopefully be trying to get some more information from him. But we also heard from him on stage earlier today, if we could play that. We are grateful for everything that you have done and the sacrifices you made, some of treasure, some of time, talent. Thank you for all you've done to support us in this incredible quest to turn this state back red and in a Republican bastion. Thank you very much. We have been tracking the numbers that have been coming in, and they're not real good for us right now. They're pretty, they're pretty, uh, pretty far behind, but I will tell you this as a guy who actually won a race once by nine votes, I can tell you, uh, I have patience and can wait. Now, again, like I mentioned, as he said right there, and as I mentioned, they are going to continue to watch these results come through. But as I mentioned, um, pretty close, uh, to a concession speech guys.