Gallego wins Arizona 2024 Senate election, CBS News projects. See the race results.
Rep. Ruben Gallego will defeat Republican Kari Lake in the Arizona Senate race, CBS News projects — a crucial win for Democrats as the GOP gained control of the Senate.
Gallego and Lake were duking it out for an open seat after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat turned independent, opted not to seek reelection.
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 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.
