Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego won the Arizona Senate race, becoming the first Latino to represent the state in the Senate, defeating far-right firebrand Kari Lake.
Gallego will replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic-turned-independent who ran for office as a centrist and charted a path for Democrats to win statewide elections in the right-leaning state, but then failed. has consistently stymied Democratic priorities in the Senate. She did not seek re-election.
While the presidential race was neck-and-neck in polls throughout the election, Gallego polled a few percentage points ahead of Lake throughout the campaign, an unlikely outcome for a progressive congressman trying to win a swing state. Gallego also has an advantage over Lake in fundraising, giving him more local airtime and mailbox presence.
In the end, he defeated Lake with 50% of the vote, while Lake defeated Trump with 48%, and Trump easily defeated Harris in the state.
“Thanks, Arizona!” Gallego wrote on the social platform X, where he planned to address his supporters at a news conference Monday night.
A Gallego win would give Democrats 47 seats in the 100-member Senate, compared with 52 for Republicans, erasing their previous majority in the chamber.
Republicans flipped Democratic-held Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana. In the latter three cases, losing senators Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Jon Tester all polled ahead of Harris but were unable to overcome their states’ Republican shifts.
Lake has had trouble winning over moderate Republicans and independent voters, both of whom he needs to win. Her attack on the late U.S. Sen. John McCain sparked a backlash and so-called McCain Republicans were divided in their support of her.
Lake ran for governor in 2022, losing to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake has yet to accept the results of that election.
Republican efforts are more focused on efforts to push the state back into the red after Trump’s narrow defeat nationwide in 2020. Not including Lake. Instead, Trump was photographed with out-of-state figures including J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy and Tulsi Gabbard.
Arizona has had six senators in just over a decade, creating a steady stream of high-priced elections for these coveted seats. Republicans there have moved to the right of the electorate, providing an opportunity for Democrats to move left among new residents and suburbanites.
Gallego often tells his personal story on the campaign trail. The son of Mexican and Colombian immigrants, he was raised by his mother and worked odd jobs at meatpacking plants and pizza parlors to earn extra income for his family. He then graduated from Harvard, joined the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq as part of one of the deadliest units of the war.
For decades, Lake reported the news in Arizona’s homes every day as an anchor for a local Fox station in Phoenix. Growing up in Iowa, she talked about being the youngest of nine children and calling herself “Mama Bear.” She embraced Trump and the MAGA movement, happily saying “You can always call me Trump in a dress.”
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
