Summary
Democrat Ruben Gallego has won Arizona’s Senate seat, defeating Republican Kari Lake in a closely watched race.
Gallego will replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, marking Arizona’s fourth consecutive Democratic Senate win as the state trends centrist.
Gallego, once a progressive firebrand, shifted to a moderate stance, securing support from key groups like a major police union and emphasizing bipartisan issues like border security and veteran services.
Lake’s hardline MAGA persona failed to resonate widely, trailing Gallego in both votes and fundraising. Gallego framed his victory as a testament to perseverance and inclusivity.
It’s going to be interesting to do the post mortem analysis and see how much damage Kamal did to down ballot Democrats. I did a very light swing states analysis and it looked like she was pulling 1-2 points off every democrat in those races.
Obviously the die is cast, but there was just such a strong evidence that Harris was running a deeply unpopular campaign, the urgency to move her on issues was largely deflected through structural incompetence/ arrogance in media and social media.