With Vice President Kamala Harris tied, Democrats can retain control of the Senate by winning either the Nevada race, which remains too early to call, or next month’s runoff in Georgia. Republicans now need to win both of those races to take the majority. The Arizona race is one of a handful of contests that Republicans have targeted in their bid for 50-50 control of the Senate. It was a test of the inroads Kelly and other Democrats have made in a state once reliably dominated by the GOP. Kelly’s victory suggests that the Democratic success in Arizona was not an aberration during the presidency of Donald Trump. Other contests in Arizona, including the governor’s race between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake, were too early to call Friday night. Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who has flown into space four times, is married to former US congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who inspired the nation with her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head during a 2011 assassination attempt that killed six people and injured 13 Kelly and Giffords co-founded a gun safety advocacy group. Kelly’s victory in a 2020 special election, which was triggered by the death of Republican Sen. John McCain, gave Democrats both seats in the Arizona Senate for the first time in 70 years. The change was prompted by the state’s rapidly changing demographics and Trump’s unpopularity. Kelly’s 2022 campaign has focused heavily on his support for abortion rights, protecting Social Security, lowering drug prices and ensuring a steady water supply amid a drought that has limited his water supply. Colorado River in Arizona. With President Joe Biden struggling with low approval ratings, Kelly has distanced himself from the president, particularly on border security, and downplayed his engagement with Democrats amid anxiety over the state of the economy. He also characterized himself as an independent, willing to split his party, McCain-style. Masters, a partner of billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, sought to penetrate Kelly’s independent image by aligning him with Biden’s failure to secure the US-Mexico border and curb runaway inflation. Masters endeared himself to many GOP voters with his penchant for provocation and contrarian thinking. He has called for the privatization of Social Security, taken a hard line against abortion and promoted a racist theory popular with white nationalists that Democrats seek to use immigration to replace whites in America. But after emerging bruised from a contentious qualifier, Masters has struggled to raise money and has come to the defense of his controversial positions. He won Trump’s endorsement after claiming that “Trump won 2020,” but when pressed during a debate last month, he acknowledged that he has seen no evidence that the election was rigged. He later repeated the false claim that Trump had won. After the primaries, he deleted some of his more controversial posts from his website, but it wasn’t enough for the moderate voters who decided the election.
