Gallego ahead of Lake with 60% of votes still to be counted

Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, was leading well-known former television news anchor and staunch Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in Tuesday's election for U.S. Senate.

Gallego's lead Wednesday was by a smaller margin than some pre-election polls predicted, The Arizona Republic reported. With an estimated 60% of the vote counted, and votes still being counted across the state, Gallego was ahead of Lake by 2.3 percentage points.

The race in a state with a recent history of close elections is among a handful of contests that will determine how large a Republican majority Trump will work with in the Senate when the president-elect returns to the White House next year. The GOP clinched the Senate majority Tuesday night, retaking it from Democrats who held it for four years.

Gallego expressed confidence when he spoke to Democrats on Tuesday night in Phoenix. "We had a mantra on this campaign: Go everywhere and talk to everyone," Gallego said. "And that's exactly what we did. We didn't take one vote for granted."

Lake posted about results in the presidential race and shared complaints from others about the pace of vote counting in Maricopa County but did not say anything about her own race.

Gallego maintained a significant fundraising advantage throughout the race.

The winner of the Senate race will replace Kyrsten Sinema, who won her seat in 2018 as a Democrat but became an independent two years ago.

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