After it was confirmed that Donald Trump had beaten Kamala Harris to become the 47th President of the United States, all eyes were turned to Arizona on Wednesday, where Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake are locked in a Senate race. Ruben Gallego is an Iraq War veteran while television news anchor-turned Republican Kari Lake is a staunch Trump supporter.
According to latest reports by the US media, Democrats are likely to hold the Senate seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema. An ex-Democrat, Sinema had switched to become an independent. Gallego was leading 50.4% of the vote to Lake's to 47.7% when 60% of the vote counted. Gallego was ahead in early returns, which included a combination of mail ballots received and counted before Election Day and those cast in person on Tuesday, the news reports added.
Kari Lake vs Ruben Gallego: Why Arizona matters?
According to the Associated Press, Arizona was reliably Republican until 2016. However, anti-Trump feelings powered Democrats to emerge from the ashes and Arizona voters have rejected Trump and his favoured candidates in every statewide election since then.
Who is Ruben Gallego?
The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago by a single mother and eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that sustained heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend. If elected, he would be the first Latino U.S. senator from Arizona.
Gallego attacked Kari Lake’s support for a state law dating to the Civil War that outlawed abortions under nearly all circumstances. Lake moved to the middle on the issue, infuriating some of her allies on the right by opposing a federal abortion ban. Gallego went to the extent of saying Lake as a liar who will do and say anything to gain power.
