Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further padding their Senate majority.
Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes for the Senate 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.
Sinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after she antagonized the party’s left wing. She considered running for a second term as an independent but bowed out when it was clear she had no clear path to victory.
“Yes, he could!” several Gallego supporters shouted in Spanish as he offered his first comments after the race was called.
“I will fight for Arizona in Washington,” Gallego told the cheering supporters, saying that he would fight as much for the people who did not vote for him as the ones who did.
In his brief remarks, Gallego several times mentioned the single mother who raised him, crediting her with his success. He promised to work to fix what he said was the nation’s broken immigration system, and would continue to fight for veterans and for women’s reproductive rights.
The Associated Press left a voicemail and email message seeking comment from Lake’s campaign Monday night.
With Gallego's win, there was only one more major race left uncalled in Arizona. The race between Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel for the 6th Congressional District remained too early to call.
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.