Democrat Ruben Gallego has won Arizona’s open Senate seat, defeating GOP opponent Kari Lake.
Gallego’s victory marks the final Senate race before the 2024 elections. Including two independents aligned with Democrats, Republicans will hold 53 seats to Democrats’ 47 when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3.
Gallego makes the jump to the Senate from the House of Representatives, where he was first elected in 2014. Gallego was a strong fundraiser and ran ads focused on his personal story and military service — but not on his progressive voting record, which represented a safe seat in Phoenix. .
Lake, a bombastic former TV host and acolyte of Donald Trump, has now fallen short in two consecutive elections, following a narrow defeat for governor in 2022. Despite Arizona’s status as a battleground where races can be closed, major national Republican groups remained usually outside. of the race, while Gallego and the national Democrats enjoyed a huge spending advantage.
The seat was vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who was elected as a Democrat but left the party at the end of 2022 and ended her term as an independent.
