Democrat Ruben Gallego will defeat Kari Lake for Arizona Senate seat, CNN projects
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego will win a closely watched US Senate seat in Arizona, CNN projects, defeating Republican Kari Lake to become the state’s first Latino senator.
Gallego will succeed retiring independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat, as he joins the soon-to-be-GOP-controlled chamber in January. His win is a bright spot for Democrats, who lost the presidency and their Senate majority last week. CNN has not yet projected the race for control of the US House of Representatives.
With Donald Trump winning Arizona, Gallego also becomes one of several Democrats who were able to win Senate seats this year while the president-elect was carrying their states.
The Senate election in Arizona pitted Gallego, a fifth-term congressman who rebranded himself as a moderate in the general election, against Lake, the 2022 GOP nominee for governor and a close Trump ally who pushed false conspiracies about the 2020 election and her own loss two years later.
The race was defined by issues such as the economy, high cost of housing, illegal immigration into the border state and abortion rights.
Preelection polling showed Lake struggling to match Trump’s numbers, especially among independents.
Gallego, a former member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, outraised and outspent Lake, who did not receive help from the main Senate GOP super PAC tied to Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Born in Chicago, Gallego is of Colombian and Mexican heritage. He served in the US Marines and was deployed to Iraq. He has spoken about seeing some of the worst fighting there and has been open about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gallego was first elected to Congress in 2014 to represent a deep-blue district in the Phoenix area. He previously served two terms in the Arizona House.
-CNN
