An envelope containing a suspicious white powder was mailed to Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s Phoenix campaign headquarters.
After a staffer opened the envelope and was exposed, authorities were alerted, according to The Associated Press.
While speaking during her rally in Queen Creek, Arizona, on Sunday, Lake — who is up against Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat — addressed the incident and revealed that those who were exposed to the powder aren’t injured.
“I have been so busy campaigning. This happened. I was not in the office. One of our wonderful staffers, a couple of them, were actually exposed,” Lake said, according to Fox News. “And so far they’re doing OK. We’re monitoring them, and we want to make sure that everything’s OK.”
The substance has been sent to a lab for testing as the first step to finding out who did it, Lake said.
“But listen, we’re in dangerous times,” she added, per the report. “This is not the first time we’ve been threatened. I’ve been threatened many times. Our tires have been slashed. We’ve had screws drilled into our tires so that our tires would blow out while we’re on the road. We are living in dangerous times, and that’s why we need to elect somebody who’s strong and a fighter and not a coward. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I really don’t want to get too far ahead of it.”
Meanwhile, a tweet from Lake’s official campaign account asked: “Will the media immediately accuse our opponent of being responsible for this like they did to us over @katiehobbs WaterGate?”
“We won’t,” the post said. “We prefer to let law enforcement solve crimes, not advance narratives. Some things are more important than scoring political points.”
Lake is ahead by 2.6 percentage points, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
In a statement to ABC News, Hobbs took a stance on what took place at Lake’s headquarters: “The reported incident at Kari Lake’s campaign office is incredibly concerning and I am thankful that she and her staff were not harmed,” she said.
“Political violence, threats, or intimidation have no place in our democracy. I strongly condemn this threatening behavior directed at Lake and her staff.”