Kari Lake supporters reenact biblical battle outside election centre

Supporters of Republican candidate Kari Lake held a protest march this weekend outside the centre where votes are being counted in her race to be named Arizona governor.

While Democrats have won the midterm contests in Arizona for both Senate and secretary of state, the gubernatorial vote remains among several still being counted across the country.

Saturday’s protests outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Centre in Phoenix included a reenactment of the biblical Battle of Jericho by supporters of Ms Lake, who as of late on Sunday was trailing her Democrat rival Katie Hobbs by 26,000 votes, a 1 point margin, down about 10,000 votes from a day earlier.

The race still hasn’t been called, with roughly 160,000 votes remaining to be counted statewide.

On Saturday, Ms Lake’s supporters marched around the voting centre carrying signs that Ms Hobbs and the Democrats were “traitors”.

The march followed the battle of a described in the Bible in the Old Testament book of Joshua.

In the Bible telling, Israelites marched around the city of Jericho seven times as they set out to win the land of Cannan, while blowing trumpets and yelling.

The city’s walls then collapsed with the shouting allowing the Israelites to conquer the city.

Ms Lake has been endorsed by Donald Trump and has continued to propagate the former president’s false claims that the 2020 elections were stolen.

Another clip of the demonstration showed Ms Lake’s supporters with a shofar or ram’s horn, which has become a common sight at right-wing Christian nationalist rallies in recent years.

Reverend Nathan Empsall, the executive director of Faithful America, was quoted as saying to Newsweek that “re-enacting the Battle of Jericho is particularly troubling, given that it is a subtle threat of political violence”.

Heather Thompson Day, a Christian author and associate professor at Andrews University, told the outlet that “He [Jesus] had no interest in setting up a government of worldly kingship, he was only interested in a spiritual governance and the submission of our hearts in love, toward God and each other”.

Ms Lake has at no point been ahead in the count in Arizona, but insists she will take the lead soon once mail-in ballots are fully accounted for.