Arizona U.S. Senate Race Between Martha McSally, Kyrsten Sinema Too Close To Call

By Bret Jaspers
Published: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - 12:23am
Updated: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - 2:50pm
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Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally campaigns
Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally.

Arizona’s U.S. Senate race is too close to call. The winner likely won’t be known for days.

Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema are running neck and neck. Neither candidate spoke at her party’s celebration Tuesday night.

McSally held a narrow lead, according to results posted on the Secretary of State’s website, but potentially hundreds of thousands of votes statewide had yet to be counted as of midnight.

The historic race will see Arizona elect its first female senator. Both Sinema and McSally had served in the U.S. House and are vying for the seat currently held by Republican Jeff Flake, who is retiring.

Leonard Aragon is a Democrat and supports Sinema. Apart from the unknown outcome, he said the night shook out the way he expected.

"Yeah, I mean, like if you were realistic, I think that you expected that we would take the House and wouldn’t take the Senate and so I think it worked out the way I thought it would work out and most people did," said Aragon.

After all precincts report, county recorder’s offices will then verify signatures of early ballots dropped off on election day. More updates are expected on Thursday, although a conclusive result could come much later than that, especially if there are legal challenges.

Angela Green, a Green Party candidate, was running a distant third, with just over 2 percent of the vote.

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