Democrat Ruben Gallego will defeat Kari Lake for Arizona Senate seat, CNN projects

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego will win a closely watched US Senate seat in Arizona, CNN projects, defeating Republican Kari Lake to become the state’s first Latino senator.

Gallego will succeed retiring independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat, as he joins the soon-to-be-GOP-controlled chamber in January. His win is a bright spot for Democrats, who lost the presidency and their Senate majority last week. CNN has not yet projected the race for control of the US House of Representatives.

With Donald Trump winning Arizona, Gallego also becomes one of several Democrats who were able to win Senate seats this year while the president-elect was carrying their states.

The Senate election in Arizona pitted Gallego, a fifth-term congressman who rebranded himself as a moderate in the general election, against Lake, the 2022 GOP nominee for governor and a close Trump ally who pushed false conspiracies about the 2020 election and her own loss two years later.

Gallego on Monday thanked Republicans who voted for him, saying, “They took a chance on me.”

“And we’re not going to agree all the time, and I’m going to always seek the input, and we’re going to find middle ground where we can,” he said at a news conference shortly after the race was called. “But at the core, I’m always going to defend the Constitution of the United States and the interests of everyday Arizonans.”

Asked what he’d fight against with a Republican White House and Senate majority, Gallego said, “When it’s time to fight we will fight the administration. When there’s places that we can find common ground, we’ll find common ground,” but that he’d ultimately do “what is the best for Arizona.”

The race was defined by issues such as the economy, high cost of housing, illegal immigration into the border state and abortion rights.

Gallego, who would be the first Latino senator from Arizona, vowed to “fight to fix a broken immigration system and security” and to “lower costs on everything, gas, groceries, rent and more.”

Preelection polling showed Lake struggling to match Trump’s numbers, especially among independents.

Gallego, a former member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, outraised and outspent Lake, who did not receive help from the main Senate GOP super PAC tied to Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Born in Chicago, Gallego is of Colombian and Mexican heritage. He served in the US Marines and was deployed to Iraq. He has spoken about seeing some of the worst fighting there and has been open about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gallego was first elected to Congress in 2014 to represent a deep-blue district in the Phoenix area. He previously served two terms in the Arizona House.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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