PHOENIX – Democrat Ruben Gallego Arizona’s first Latino senator has been elected, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further increasing their majority in the Senate.

Gallego’s victory continues a series of Democratic successes in a state that was reliably Republican until donald trump He was elected president in 2016. Arizona voters had rejected Trump-backed candidates in every subsequent election, but the president-elect won Arizona this year over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Thank you, Arizona!” Gallego wrote on the social platform X. He planned to speak to his followers during a press conference on Monday night.

With Gallego’s victory, the Republican Party will have 53 seats of the 100 members of the Senate.

Gallego has been a member of the House of Representatives for five terms and is an Iraq War veteran with a very successful life story that was highlighted in his public appearances and advertisements. He will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose victory 2018 As a Democrat he created a formula that the party has successfully replicated ever since.

cinema left the democratic party two years ago after she became angry with the left wing of the party. She considered running for a second term as an independent but leaned when it was clear that he had no clear path to victory.

Gallego ran ahead of Harrissuggesting that 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 Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s two victories in 2020 and 2022. Ballot splitting was also decisive in Michigan. , Wisconsin and Nevada this year, which Democrats won even as Trump won their states.

Republicans flipped Democratic-controlled Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana. In the last three cases, defeated senators Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Jon Tester were also ahead of Harris, but could not overcome their states’ swings toward the Republican Party.

Gallego led comfortably after the first results were released on election night, but his lead narrowed as more votes were counted. Arizona is known for a long count because most people vote by mail, which takes longer to verify and process, including many who turn in their ballots on Election Day.

The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago by a single mother and was eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that suffered numerous casualties, including the death of his best friend.

Gallego maintained a significant fundraising lead throughout the race. He relentlessly attacked Lake’s support for a state law dating back to the Civil War that banned abortions in almost all circumstances. Lake veered toward the center of the issue, angering some of her right-wing allies by opposing a federal ban on abortion.

Gallego portrayed Lake as a liar who would do and say anything to gain power. He downplayed his progressive voting record in Congress and relied on his personal history and military service to build an image as a pragmatic moderate.

Lake is a well-known former television news anchor who became populist right-wing star with her 2022 campaign for governor of Arizona.

She has never recognized losing that race and called herself the “legal governor” in her 2023 book. She continued her unsuccessful court fight to overturn her even after beginning her Senate campaign.

Her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that she and Trump were robbed of consecutive elections endeared her to the former president, who considered her his vice presidential running mate. But he compounded his struggles with the moderate Republicans he alienated during his 2022 campaign, when he disparaged the late Sen. John McCain and then-Gov. Doug Ducey.

He tried to moderate himself, but struggled to maintain a coherent message on thorny issues, such as electoral fraud and abortion.

Lake focused instead on border security, a major issue for Republicans in a border state that saw record border crossings during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. He promised a harsh crackdown on illegal immigration and described Gallego as a supporter of “open borders.” He also attacked his personal life, pointing out his divorce from Kate Gallego shortly before she gave birth. His ex-wife, now mayor of Phoenix, Galician endorsed and has campaigned with him.