Arizona 2024 Senate race has Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego facing off in heated election for open seat

Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake are facing off in battleground Arizona in a high-profile Senate race as Democrats seek to hang onto their narrow control of the chamber at large.

Gallego and Lake have been duking it out for the open seat after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat turned independent, opted not to seek reelection. The seat is among a number that Democrats have been fighting to hang onto this cycle, with a Senate map that’s put them on defense across a handful of races in 2024. 

Gallego, 44, is a Marine combat veteran who was first elected to the House in 2014 and represents a district that includes parts of Phoenix and Glendale. In his campaign for Senate, the progressive lawmaker has worked to court voters in the middle, while painting his opponent as extreme. Gallego would be the first Latino senator to represent Arizona. 

Lake, who narrowly lost a hard-right campaign for governor in 2022, is a former TV news anchor and close ally of former President Donald Trump. The 55-year-old, who has widespread name recognition in the state, has been a vocal election denier regarding the outcome of both her own gubernatorial race and Trump’s 2020 matchup against President Biden. But she often reeled in that message during the Senate campaign. In the lead-up to Election Day, Lake launched personal attacks at Gallego, including about the circumstances of his divorce.

Until Sinema won her Senate race in 2018, a Democrat hadn’t been elected to the Senate in Arizona in three decades, though Sinema went on to leave the party. Then in 2020, Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, won a competitive Senate race to serve the remainder of Sen. John McCain’s term after his death, becoming the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1962. 

The historically Republican state has been a key battleground this cycle, and as a border state, has seen immigration become particularly salient for voters — an issue that has tended to be more favorable for Republicans. 

Still, Gallego has led in the bulk of statewide polling in the months leading up to the election, and Democrats invested heavily in advertising in the state, which saw among the largest advertising reservations disparities of all the battleground races this cycle. Arizona also has an abortion initiative on the ballot — an issue that has appeared to drive Democrats to the polls in previous elections.