Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona's first Latino US senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further padding their Senate majority, the AP reports. Gallego's victory continues a string of Democratic successes in a state that was reliably Republican until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Arizona voters had rejected Trump-endorsed candidates in every election since, but the president-elect won Arizona this year over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. "Gracias, Arizona!" Gallego wrote on the social platform X. With Gallego's win, the GOP will have 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.
Gallego is a five-term House member and an Iraq War veteran with an up-by-the-bootstraps life story that he featured prominently in his public appearances and ads. He will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula that the party has successfully replicated ever since. Gallego ran ahead of Harris, suggesting a substantial number of voters supported Trump at the top of the ticket and the Democrat for Senate, a pattern seen in Sinema's victory and both of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly's wins in 2020 and 2022. Ticket-splitters also were decisive in the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada Senate races this year, which Democrats won even as Trump won their states.
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