Democrat Gallego wins Arizona’s U.S. Senate race against Kari Lake

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) – Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino American senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further expanding their Senate majority.

Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes for the Senate in a state that was reliably Republican for those seats until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Arizona voters had rejected Trump-backed candidates in every election since, but the president-elect won Arizona this year against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Gracias, Arizona!” Gallego wrote on the social platform X.

With Gallego’s victory, the Republican Party will have 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.

Gallego is a member of the House of Representatives and an Iraq War veteran with a current life story that he featured prominently in his public appearances and advertisements. He replaces Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula that the party has successfully repeated ever since.

Sinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after she antagonized the left wing of the party. She considered running for a second term as an independent leaned out when it was clear she had no clear path to victory.

“Yes, he could!” several Gallego supporters shouted in Spanish as he made his first comments after the race was called.

“I will fight for Arizona in Washington,” Gallego told cheering supporters, saying he would fight just as hard for the people who didn’t vote for him as for those who did.

In his brief remarks, Gallego mentioned several times the single mother who raised him, crediting her with his success. He pledged to work to fix what he said was the country’s broken immigration system, and would continue to fight for veterans and for women’s reproductive rights.

The Associated Press left a voicemail and email message Monday evening seeking comment from Lake’s campaign.

With Gallego’s victory, only one major race remained in Arizona. The race between Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel for the 6th Congressional District remained too early to call.

Gallego ran for Harrisindicating that a substantial number of voters supported Trump at the top of the ticket and the Democrat for the Senate, a pattern seen in Sinema’s win and both of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s victories in 2020 and 2022. Ticket splitters were also decisive in the Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada Senate races this year, which Democrats won even as Trump won their states.

Republicans flipped Democratic-controlled Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana. In the last three cases, the defeated Sens. Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Jon Tester also ahead of Harris, but could not overcome their states’ shifts to the Republican Party.

Gallego led comfortably after the first results were announced on election night, but his lead narrowed as more ballots were counted. Arizona is known for its lengthy counting process because most people vote by mail — which takes longer to verify and process — including many who drop off their ballots on Election Day.

The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego grew up in Chicago and was eventually admitted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that suffered heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend.

Gallego maintained a significant fundraising advantage throughout the race. He relentlessly attacked Lake’s support for a Civil War-era state law that banned abortions under almost all circumstances. Lake took a middle ground on the issue, angering some of her right-wing allies by opposing a federal abortion ban.

Gallego portrayed Lake as a liar who will do or say anything to gain power. He downplayed his progressive voting record in Congress and leaned on his personal story and his military service to build an image as a pragmatic moderate.

Lake is a well-known former television news anchor who is a star of the populist right with her 2022 campaign for governor of Arizona.

She never acknowledged it lose that race and called herself the “legitimate governor” in her 2023 book. She continued her unsuccessful court battle to overturn it even after she began her Senate campaign.

Her dogmatic commitment to the lie that successive elections were stolen from Trump and her endeared her to the former president, who considered her his vice presidential running mate. But it exacerbated her battle with moderate Republicans whom she alienated during her 2022 campaign, when she discredited the late Sen. John McCain and then-Gov. Doug Ducey.

She attempted moderation but struggled to maintain a consistent message on touchy topics including election fraud and abortion.

Lake focused instead on border security, a potent issue for Republicans in a border state that saw record numbers of border crossings during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. She promised a crackdown on illegal immigration and labeled Gallego as a supporter of “open borders.” She also went after his personal life, pointing out his divorce from Kate Gallego shortly before she gave birth. His ex-wife, now mayor of Phoenix, Gallego endorsed and campaigned with him.

Originally published: November 12, 2024 at 5:06 AM PST