Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, a former Phoenix-area broadcaster who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022, is narrowly projected to lose her race against Democratic Rep. Reuben Gallego.

Gallego, who has represented a Phoenix-based House seat for nearly a decade, will succeed outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Sinema decided not to seek re-election after changing her political affiliation from Democrat to independent last year as she faced significant challenges to winning another term, The Hill. reported.

Gallego announced his challenge to Sinema before she made clear she would not seek another term, putting Senate Democrats in the temporarily awkward position of having to choose which Democrat to support.

The Arizona Democrat emphasized his background as the son of a single mother with family roots in Mexico and Colombia, along with his service in the Marine Corps, The Hill reported.

His victory provides a small but significant boost to Democrats, who had a largely disappointing election cycle this year. While they successfully defended their Senate seats in battleground states like Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona, they also lost seats in Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, and appear poised to lose in Pennsylvania as well. Furthermore, they lost control of the White House and their chances of maintaining control of the House look increasingly bleak.

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Lake, a former local news anchor, previously ran for governor of Arizona in 2022, narrowly losing to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D). She gained national attention during her gubernatorial campaign as a prominent election denier, a stance that dogged her once again during her Senate bid, even as she continued to challenge her 2022 loss in court.

“Lake, this cycle, maintained that she would not vote for a federal abortion ban if elected to the Senate and said abortion restrictions should be left up to the states,” the outlet noted, adding that she previously supported a law of 1864 now repealed. law that banned almost all abortions in Arizona.

At the same time, Gallego faced scrutiny during his Senate campaign over his record and whether his views on issues such as immigration and the border had evolved. Critics pointed to previous comments he made, such as calling Donald Trump’s border wall “stupid” and “dumb.”

Gallego, a former member of the House Progressive Caucus, later let his membership lapse, citing dues as the reason. Republicans sought to nationalize the race, using ads to link Gallego to prominent Democrats such as Vice President Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Meanwhile, Trump won Arizona this time after winning the state in 2016 but losing there to Joe Biden in 2020.

“The state once firmly controlled by the GOP has named a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators and other statewide elected officials” during the past election cycle, NBC News reported last week.

“A rapidly growing Latino population and an anti-Trump revolt among some old-line Republicans put the once-red state into battleground territory. And Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona was just the second time in 28 years that Arizona’s electoral votes went to the Democratic presidential candidate,” the outlet said. aggregate.

“Still, many of those Democratic victories have been by very narrow margins. “Arizona was the second-closest state in the country in the 2020 presidential race, with Biden beating Trump by just 0.3 percentage points (10,457 votes),” NBC said.

In the 2024 presidential race, polls in recent months showed Trump with a slight lead over Harris in Arizona, although usually within the margin of error. While Trump’s campaign was outspent and organized by Harris’ campaign in Arizona, Republicans saw a notable increase in voter registration heading into the presidential election year.

“And the state fit well with the two central themes of Trump’s campaign: the economy and immigration,” NBC further noted.