THEORY: In the days just before the election, a number of billboards and youtube ads popped up featuring people claiming they were Republicans voting for Hobbs. The ads were, in my opinion, ineffective, because they never revealed the motivation for voting against party, not even a cursory “She’s just too extreme”.
Could it be that they KNEW they would have to cheat all along, and already began weaving a narrative that large numbers of Republicans would vote for the Democrat?
If they knew that they were going to cheat (and win), they wouldn’t bother to create any narrative let alone hire a billboard. The only narrative that the Democrats care about is “We win. You lose. Deal with it.”