Lake, who did lose her gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes, made the remarks while speaking about her ongoing attempts to have the results reversed due to widely dismissed claims of voter fraud.

In an interview on The Larry Elder Show on Epoch TV, Lake described how those who are disputing her election lawsuits, which have been rejected by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge while citing lack of evidence, have “picked the wrong woman to mess with” following confirmation the Republican will be appealing the ruling.

“Somebody said, ‘Oh, just be graceful, you lost.’ No, we didn’t lose. If I would have lost I would be graceful. But I don’t walk away when I’ve been the victim of a crime,” Lake said.

“It’s not just me. The people of Arizona have been the victim of a stolen election. And I promised when I ran for governor that I would stand up and fight for the people of Arizona every single day.

“And I’m still fighting for them because they’re asking me, do not exit this fight until we have election reform and honest elections. Because if I walk away from the fight, who’s gonna stand up and demand honest selections?”

Lake, a 2020 election denier who was endorsed in the midterms by Donald Trump, is asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to reconsider all 10 counts of a lawsuit which were recently thrown out, as well as the decision for her to pay $33,000 in fees to Hobbs.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled that Lake did not present “clear and convincing” evidence to suggest the Arizona governor’s election contained widespread voter fraud and rejected all 10 complaints.

The defendants in Lake’s lawsuit, Hobbs and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, asked Thompson to sanction the Republican for filing what they considered a frivolous lawsuit, and force her to pay nearly $700,000 in legal fees as a result.

Thompson rejected the request to sanction Lake, ruling that while her case lacked meaningful evidence, there was not enough to suggest it “presented in bad faith.” Thompson did order Lake to pay $33,000 for expert witnesses hired by Hobbs.

Speaking to Elder, Lake said she still will be declared the next governor of Arizona but will “unfortunately” have to go via the courts.

“I believe we won in a landslide at the ballot box, but we have crooks, criminals and clowns running our elections in Arizona,” Lake said.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has been contacted for comment.