Arizona rejects Kari Lake, elects Ruben Gallego to US Senate

US Rep. Ruben Gallego will be Arizona’s next US Senator.

Gallego, a US Marine veteran and member of the US House of Representatives, will replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who opted not to run for reelection after a controversial first term.

What was once seen as a safe Republican seat has quickly become a consistent win for Democrats, who have won three senate elections in Arizona since 2018. Both seats will remain in Democratic control until US Sen. Mark Kelly’s term ends in 2028.

Gallego’s win also marks another major electoral loss for Kari Lake. The Republican candidate for US Senate lost her bid for governor in 2022 but refused to concede. It was not until after the 2024 election that Lake’s final lawsuit that sought to overturn her 2022 election loss was rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court.

The two contrasted sharply on a number of issues: Gallego endorsed Proposition 139, a measure to restore abortion access in Arizona, while Lake called on sheriffs to enforce a Civil War-era ban on abortions. In regards to the US-Mexico border, Gallego proposed additional funding to help law enforcement process asylum seekers more efficiently, while Lake promised to build a wall along the border and deport immigrants en masse.

The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago by a single mother, after his father was imprisoned for dealing drugs. He enlisted in the US Marine Reserves while he was on a break from Harvard, where he struggled with culture shock. He wrote in a 2021 book, “They Called Us Lucky,” that he was asked to leave during his sophomore year, when he partied too much, his grades slipped and he broke unspecified rules. He was later allowed to return.

He fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that sustained heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend, and he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning. He moved to Arizona to join his Harvard girlfriend, who had become active in Democratic politics in the state. The couple married in 2010 and divorced in 2017, a month before their son was born. His ex-wife, Kate Gallego, is now the mayor of Phoenix.

Gallego was elected in 2010 to the state Legislature, where Sinema also served for one of his two terms. In 2014, he won a bitter congressional primary, toppling a dynastic figure in the Phoenix Latino community. He’s giving up a safe Democratic seat in Congress, a district that includes the Black and Latino neighborhoods of south and west Phoenix.

In the House, he has focused on veterans and military issues and has promised to continue advocating on these issues in the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.