Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego answers questions during a Clean Election Commission debate against GOP candidate Kari Lake. Photo by Joe Rondone | The Arizona Republic/Pool
Democratic U.S. Congressman Ruben Gallego has an early lead over Republican opponent Kari Lake in the race for one of Arizona’s U.S. Senate seats, according to early unofficial results released by the Secretary of State’s Office on election night.
Gallego, a former U.S. Marine who has represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House since 2015 led Lake, a Trump-endorsed longtime former Phoenix news anchor, by nearly 7 percentage points as of 8:45 p.m. on election night, with about half of the estimated votes tallied.
With more than 1.8 million ballots counted, Gallego has garnered 52.5% of votes to Lake’s 45.7%. There are around 4.3 million registered voters in Arizona.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
In costly and aggressive campaigns, Lake and Gallego have fought for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat-turned-independent, Kyrsten Sinema, who did not run for reelection.
Lake is a well-known purveyor of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. She followed in his footsteps with her own unfounded claims that Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs rigged the 2022 race for Arizona governor against her.
Even as she ran for Senate, Lake continued to unsuccessfully challenge the results of the gubernatorial race in court, and two years later she still has not conceded the race.
During the only Senate debate, Lake claimed that she had never lied to the people of Arizona, even though in April she legally conceded that she had spread lies about Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer after he filed a defamation suit against her.
Both Gallego and Lake attempted to paint the other as too extreme for Arizona. Lake sought to align Gallego with Democratic President Joe Biden and his “open borders” and Gallego reminded voters that Lake had drastically moderated her stance on abortion in the past year.
Lake most recently stuck to the Trump talking point that states should determine abortion policy, when just two years earlier she said she was “1,000% pro-life,” and called abortion “the ultimate sin.”
Gallego garnered support from many moderate Republicans who said they couldn’t support Lake and her vitriolic style, including Mesa Mayor John Giles and former staffers for the late U.S. Senator from Arizona John McCain.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.