Kari Lake loses Arizona Senate race to Ruben Gallego

Gallego, who will be the first Latino senator in his state, won with just over 50 percent of the vote after a bitter campaign with accusations from the office of current and retiring Sen. Kristen Sinema (I-AZ) that Gallego has intense personal animosity towards Lake, who had previously run for governor in Arizona in 2022 and lost.

Gallego, 44, posted a victory message on X that read: "Gracias, Arizona!" His victory means the Republicans will have a 53-47 advantage in the Senate. Lake has not yet conceded.

"And so what it means to me is that I finally get to return the favor to a lot of the people that were the role models to me growing up, that I did not have," Gallego said, according to the Arizona Republic. "And I did not have a father growing up. And my father luckily left fairly early ... And so I relied on a lot of people that were my male role models to actually show me what it meant to be a good man and a moral man.

"And I feel like at least now there is going to be an opportunity that some young kids are going to be able to say, like, I can do that. Not necessarily run for Senate, but I can just go to college. I can go get a career. I can leave poverty."

Lake did not officially concede her gubernatorial loss and has remained a popular figure within the Republican Party. She spoke at the Republican National Convention. Trump won the battleground state of Arizona on his way to victory on Nov. 5.