Ruben Gallego Wins Arizona Senate Seat in Closely Watched Election

Kari Lake, a 2022 GOP nominee for Arizona governor and a close ally of Donald Trump, has been involved in a dispute with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins over the results of the Arizona gubernatorial race. The race was defined by various issues, including economic concerns, high housing costs, illegal immigration into the border state, and abortion rights. Lake struggled to match Trump’s numbers, especially among independents, according to pre-election polling.

Ruben Gallego, a fifth-term congressman from Arizona who rebranded himself as a moderate for the general election, ran against Lake in the Senate election. Gallego, a former member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, outraised and outspent Lake. Gallego is of Colombian and Mexican heritage, and he has a background in the U.S. Marines, where he was deployed to Iraq. He 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. In this Senate election, Gallego emerged victorious, one of several Democrats who won Senate seats in states carried by President-elect Trump[1].