Gallego’s Lead Over Lake Grows in Arizona Senate Race

(Left) Kari Lake speaks in Dallas on Aug. 5, 2022. (Right) Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in the Capitol on July 14, 2022. AP Photo

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) over the weekend saw his lead over Republican Kari Lake grow in the last uncalled 2024 U.S. Senate race.

Gallego is now up by 2.2 points, which is 66,305 votes, according to unofficial results from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office from Nov. 10.

With some 270,000 ballots left to count, Gallego has 1.55 million votes to Lake’s 1.49 million.

Maricopa County, the most populous in the state, reported the latest batch of ballots totaling about 97,000. Earlier on Nov. 10, officials there said that there were an estimated 202,000 uncounted ballots.

Many states across the country have finished processing votes from the Nov. 5 election.

The Gallego–Lake race is the only Senate race that has not been called. Each candidate has expressed confidence that he or she will ultimately prevail.

The Associated Press over the weekend called Arizona for President-elect Donald Trump, saying there were no scenarios that would let Vice President Kamala Harris close the gap with the former president.

Gallego, a military veteran who has been a congressman since 2015, is vying with Lake, a former television anchor, to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Sinema left the Democratic Party in 2022 before opting against seeking another term. Sinema is in her first term in office.

Before Sinema, the seat was held by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who also retired from Congress rather than trying for reelection.

Republicans have flipped multiple seats in the current election, including a seat in Montana. Republicans will enjoy a majority in the upper chamber when the new Congress starts in January 2025.

Elsewhere in Arizona, Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), and Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), have been projected as or declared winners.

In Arizona’s Third Congressional District, the race for the seat being vacated by Gallego was won by Yassamin Ansari, a former member of the Phoenix City Council. Ansari beat state Rep. Jeff Zink.

In the state’s Sixth Congressional District, Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) was fighting for another term against state Sen. Kirsten Engel. The margin was just 2,093 votes as of Sunday night.

In the Eighth Congressional District, Republican and former prosecutor Abraham Hamadeh was projected to win over Democrat Gregory Whitten. The contest is over a seat held by Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), who chose not to run for another term.