Winner finally projected in contentious Arizona Senate contest

The Arizona Senate contest between Democratic Phoenix-area Rep. Ruben Gallego and Trump-backed former news anchor Kari Lake has finally been projected for Gallego, multiple media outlets reported late Monday.

Arizona was one of the most hotly contested states of the cycle, with polls at the presidential level showing a razor-thin contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. At the Senate level, however, things have been more chaotic.

The race was initially shaping up to be a three-way contest, with incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, facing widespread criticism from her constituents after she left the Democratic Party to become an independent. However, she couldn't drum up a base of polling or financial support to run for re-election as an independent and eventually declined to run, leaving an open seat.

Gallego, a Marine veteran and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has broadly run a campaign to be a more down-the-line Democrat, though he has taken a more centrist line on certain locally important issues like border security.

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Lake is most infamous for refusing to concede her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs, filing a series of ill-fated lawsuits to try to get the election results thrown out based on unsupported or exaggerated claims of problems in the election process.

In her Senate campaign, she has at times tried to tone down her image, in particular trying to walk back her claims from 2022 that the late Sen. John McCain is a "loser" and Republicans who support him should "get the hell out" of the party.

However, she suffered from a weak debate against Gallego, and even some typically staunch Republican interest groups, like Arizona's largest police union, ended up endorsing Gallego. Trump himself eventually distanced himself from her, concerned that she could hurt his prospects of winning the state.