Ruben Gallego defeats Kari Lake in Senate race
PHOENIX — Rep. Ruben Gallego defeated Kari Lake in the U.S. Senate race in Arizona. The Associated Press, CNN and Fox News, as well as other news outlets, called the race for Gallego on Monday night.
According to the secretary of state’s website, Gallego is 2 percentage points, or 72,626 votes, ahead of Lake with more than 93% of the ballots counted.
“Growing up the way I did in the environment I did, growing up poor, being here is something that was literally a dream,” Gallego, 44, said during an impromptu celebratory press conference Monday night.
Will Kari Lake concede?
He is set to become Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, filling the seat left open by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat but switched her party affiliation to independent while in office. She decided not to seek reelection.
Gallego is a Harvard alumnus who later fought in the Iraq war before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015. After his win was official, he made a promise: “As hard as I fought in the Marines, I will fight as hard for Arizona in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
Despite Gallego’s growing lead in recent days, Lake’s campaign volunteers, in partnership with Turning Point Action, hit the streets to ‘cure’ ballots. This involves reaching voters with ballots that need fixing, but the deadline to cure passed Sunday, closing the final pathway to close the gap. The Arizona Supreme Court declined a voter rights group’s request to extend the curing deadline since 60,000 ballots had yet to be processed.
“Thank you to all of the grassroots patriots who worked so hard to ensure that every vote gets counted,” Lake said in a post on X. “I love you, Arizona.”
Barring a last-minute legal intervention, the period for ballot curing has closed.
Thank you to all of the grassroots patriots who worked so hard to ensure that every vote gets counted.
I love you, Arizona. pic.twitter.com/NTLTqz8puK
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 11, 2024
She has not yet conceded the race, even though, earlier this week, she said, “I will accept the results of the election.”
“I have had a few concerns, but we’ve done a lot of legwork to prevent any problems,” she added.
Republican majorities in Senate and House
Lake ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2022. She alleged fraud and challenged the results in court. Her past performance led to doubts about her ability to win, and a GOP-funded PAC, run by allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell, didn’t run ads for Lake, according to the Phoenix New Times.
Lake’s loss doesn’t affect Republicans gaining control over the Senate. They will capture the upper chamber with a 53-seat majority, while Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents are projected to have 47 seats. The Republican Conference successfully flipped seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Montana.
Republicans are also projected to reclaim control of the U.S. House of Representatives. More than a dozen races have not yet been called, but the results appear favorable for GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson.
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