Wed. Nov 27th, 2024

Arizona Senate candidates Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Republican Kari Lake answer questions during the Arizona Clean Election Commission debate at BitFire Studios on Oct. 9, 2024 in Phoenix. Photo by Cheryl Evans | The Arizona Republic/Pool

Democratic U.S. Congressman Ruben Gallego was still leading the race for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat Wednesday evening, but it was clear that his Republican opponent Kari Lake and her followers still believed she might eke out a victory. 

Some of Lake’s most ardent followers shared baseless rumors the day after the election that Democrats were again attempting to “steal” a win from the former Phoenix news anchor. That echoed Lake’s false statements when she lost the 2022 race for Arizona governor to Democrat Katie Hobbs, as well as her evidence-free claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. 

With more than 2.5 million votes tallied statewide and an estimated 1 million left to be counted, Gallego led Lake by 2.5 percentage points as of Wednesday evening. He was 59,980 votes ahead and had accumulated 52.2% of votes to Lake’s 47.7%, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. 

The race was still too close to call on Wednesday night, according to the Associated Press. 

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“We are closely watching as results come in, and we’re feeling very optimistic,” Gallego posted on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, early Wednesday afternoon. “This team has worked tirelessly to connect with Arizonans across the state, and I’m proud of the campaign we’ve run. While we wait for the final count, I want to thank everyone who showed up, volunteered, and supported us.” 

Gallego, a former U.S. Marine who has represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House since 2015, fought a bitter battle against Lake in the runup to the election, marked by personal barbs and accusations of extremism from both sides. 

Gallego ran on a platform of making life more affordable for the middle and working class, abortion rights and measured increases in border security that include increased manpower and better use of technology. 

Gallego garnered support from some 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. Sen. John McCain.

Lake toed the MAGA line during her campaign, calling for completed construction of Trump’s border wall, mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and an extension of Trump’s tax cuts. 

Lake sought to align Gallego with Democratic President Joe Biden and what she called his “open borders,” while Gallego reminded voters that Lake had drastically moderated her stance on abortion in the past year. 

Lake and her campaign on Wednesday were urging her supporters to make sure they cured any issues with their ballot envelope signatures or provisional ballots so that their votes would be counted. 

Even though Lake lagged in polling throughout the Senate race, some of her fans balked at the idea that presumed president-elect Trump had amassed 117,316 more votes in Arizona than her. 

“I’m not buying it,” Josh Barnett, a far-right conspiracy theorist and election denier, posted on X. “I told our state legislature this is what would happen when we don’t have properly and legally run elections.”

He did not provide any specific reason for suspecting election fraud. 

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. She’s also facing the prospect of paying yet-to-be determined damages to Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, after she legally conceded fault in his defamation suit regarding Lake’s false claims that Richer helped rig the 2022 governor’s race against her.

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