Democrat Ruben Gallego faces Republican Kari Lake in the race for US Senate in Arizona

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Rep. from Arizona. Ruben Gallegoan Iraq war veteran meets a well-known former news anchor and convinced television presenter Donald Trump Allies Kari Lake in Tuesday's U.S. Senate election in a state that has had a history of extremely close elections in recent times.

The race is one of the few that will decide it Majority in the Senate. It is a test of the strength of the anti-Trump coalition that fueled the rise of Democrats in Arizona, who were reliably Republican until 2016. Since then, Arizona voters have rejected Trump and his favorite candidates in every statewide election.

Arizona is one of seven battleground states expected to decide the presidency.

Gallego led Lake in early returns, which included mail-in ballots received and counted before Election Day and about half of the total expected votes. Gallego expressed confidence as he spoke to Democrats in Phoenix on Tuesday evening.

“We had a mantra in this campaign: Go everywhere and talk to everyone,” Gallego said. “And that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t take any voice for granted.”

In a break from tradition, Lake and the Arizona Republican Party did not host an election night party. In the hours after the polls closed, her normally active social media accounts remained quiet.

The winner of the Senate race will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose Victory 2018 As a Democrat, he developed a formula that the party has since successfully adopted.

cinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after angering the party's left wing. She thought about running for a second term as an independent though bowed When it was clear, she had no clear path to victory.

Gallego maintained a significant fundraising advantage throughout the race. He mercilessly attacked Lake's support for a Civil War-era state law that banned abortion in almost all circumstances. Lake represented the center on the issue and angered some of her right-wing allies by opposing a federal abortion ban.

Gallego portrayed Lake as a liar who would do and say anything to gain power.

He downplayed his progressive voting record in Congress and drew on his personal history and military service to build an image as a pragmatic moderate.

Gallego, the son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, grew up in Chicago with a single mother and was eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that suffered heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend.

If elected, he would be the first Latino U.S. senator from Arizona.

The lake became one Star of the populist right with her campaign for governor of Arizona in 2022.

She never admitted it lose the race and called herself the “rightful governor” in her 2023 book. She continued her unsuccessful court battle to overturn the verdict even after she began her Senate campaign, refusing to concede defeat in a controversial CNN interview as recently as last week.

But as she visited a polling station on Tuesday, she told reporters: “I will accept the results of this year's election.”

Her dogmatic commitment to the lie that consecutive elections were stolen from Trump and her endeared her to the former president, who viewed her as his vice presidential running mate. But it has exacerbated her battles with moderate Republicans, whom she angered during her 2022 campaign when she disparaged the late senator. John McCain and then-Gov. Doug Ducey.

She tried to moderate but struggled to deliver a unified message on sensitive issues like voter fraud and abortion.

Lake instead focused on border security, a key issue for Republicans in a state that shares a border with Mexico Record numbers illegal border crossings during the Democratic presidential election Joe Biden's Administration. She promised a tough crackdown on illegal immigration and described Gallego as a supporter of “open borders.” She also touched on his personal life, referencing his divorce from Kate Gallego shortly before she was born. His ex-wife, now mayor of Phoenix, supported Gallego and campaigned with him.

Lake spent the final weeks of the campaign trying to win over voters who were supportive of Trump but were not sold to her.

Nearly four in 10 Arizona voters said the economy and jobs are the country's biggest problems AP VoteCasta comprehensive survey of more than 110,000 voters across the country, including more than 4,000 voters in Arizona. About a quarter of Arizona voters said immigration was the most pressing issue, and about one in 10 cited abortion.

About half of Arizona voters viewed Lake unfavorably, including about four in 10 who said they had a very negative opinion of her, according to AP VoteCast. About 4 in 10 voters viewed her favorably.

About half of voters had a positive opinion of Gallego, and about four in 10 said they had a negative opinion of him.

Arizona now has two of them closest races for the US House of Representatives, where Republicans David Schweikert And Juan Ciscomani are seeking re-election in districts that voted for Biden in 2020.

Schweikert, now in his seventh term in the House, is facing a challenge from former three-term Democratic state Rep. Amish Shah in Arizona's 1st District, which includes north Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley held.

While Republicans have a voter registration advantage in the affluent district, it is trending toward the middle as college-educated suburban voters have turned away from Trump and voted reluctantly for Democrats or left their ballots blank. The redistricting before the 2022 midterm elections accelerated this trend.

Schweikert won re-election in 2022 by just 3,200 votes against a relatively unknown challenger who received minimal support from the National Democrats. Shah, an emergency room doctor, emerged as the primary winner from a field of six Democrats.

In the 6th District, Ciscomani is seeking a second term in a rematch against Democrat Kirsten Engel, whom he defeated by 1.5 percentage points in 2022. The district, which includes a section of the Arizona-Mexico border, runs from Tucson east to the New Mexico state line.

Ciscomani, a former Ducey aide who immigrated from Mexico as a child, calls border security his top priority but has distanced himself from Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Engel, a law professor at the University of Arizona and a former state lawmaker, has pointed out that Ciscomani in February rejected a major bipartisan border bill that would have overhauled the asylum system and given the president new authority to expel migrants if asylum claims become overwhelming .

Of Arizona's nine representatives in Congress, six are Republicans and three are Democrats.