Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, leads by 16,677 votes with 50.4 percent to Lake’s 49.6 percent as of 4:45 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the latest count.

Lake and Hobbs are racing for governorship in a state which narrowly backed President Joe Biden in 2020. Hobbs, who worked as a social worker for many years, would become the Grand Canyon State’s first Democratic governor in over a decade.

The race has been tight throughout the campaign, according to polls.

Donald Trump-endorsed Lake was ahead in an aggregated poll by FiveThirtyEight on November 4 with 48.9 percent support to Hobbs’ 46.4.

Hobbs’ campaign communications director, Sarah Robinson, told Newsweek before Election Day: “Every poll shows that this race is a dead heat. We’re seeing great energy and momentum on the campaign trail, and our message of lower costs, protecting fundamental freedoms, and defending our democracy are resonating with Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. We’re confident that Arizonans will make their voices heard and vote for sanity over chaos.”

Lake has been a controversial candidate for touting baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “corrupt.” Last month, she was confronted with a reel of officials, who worked with Trump, debunking her election fraud claims. During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash asked Lake about her 2020 election claims before showing her the reel.

The reel showed the claims being debunked by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue and Jeffrey Rosen, former acting U.S. attorney general.

“So these are [former] President Trump’s own top Justice Department officials. Why not believe them?” Bash asked Lake.

Instead of answering the question, Lake deflected and changed the subject to what she described as Hobbs’ “incompetence.”

Bash asked the Republican: “If leaders like you and President Trump are saying that the election was stolen, aren’t you participating, contributing, even causing the idea of people thinking that the election is not safe and secure?”

“No,” Lake responded. “We are going to make sure our elections are safe and secure for Democrats, independents and Republicans alike. We want to know that our legal vote counted. We want to know the winner on election night.”

In a tweet this month, Lake inaccurately claimed that Hobbs was a “twice-convicted racist,” in an apparent reference to lawsuits brought against the Arizona State Senate, not the candidate personally.

Meanwhile, Hobbs told crowds at a rally last week: “Send Kari Lake back to whatever dark corner of the internet she came from.”

Newsweek reached out to Lake’s campaign for comment.