Arizona Election Results: Mark Kelly Wins U.S. Senate Seat

PHOENIX, AZ — Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly won re-election to the U.S. Senate on Friday, defeating Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters, according to unofficial results.

Kelly's win secures him another six years in the Senate and also puts the Democratic party only one victory away from maintaining control of the chamber for the remaining two years of Joe Biden's presidency.

The Associated Press called the race Friday with 83 percent of precincts reporting. The most recent vote totals had Kelly with 1,128,917 votes, or 51.8 percent, and Masters with 1,005,001 votes, or 46.1 percent.

Kelly's victory statement Friday was simple and concise. "Thank you, Arizona," he wrote on Twitter.

The Arizona race is one of a handful of contests Republicans targeted in their bid to take control of the evenly divided Senate. It was a test of the inroads Kelly and other Democrats have made in a state once reliably dominated by the GOP.

The closely watched race for governor between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake was too early to call Friday night. In the secretary of state's race, Democrat Adrian Fontes defeated Republican Mark Finchem, a top 2020 election denier.

Kelly's victory follows two years spent in the Senate after he won a November 2020 special election following the death of U.S. Sen. John McCain. Before joining Congress, Kelly served as a U.S. Navy pilot and a NASA astronaut.

Kelly has distanced himself from President Joe Biden, particularly on the issue of border security, and often plays down his Democratic affiliation. Like McCain, Kelly has branded himself as an independent willing to buck his party.

Kelly told the Wall Street Journal he thinks daily about the fact that he holds McCain’s former seat."(His) legacy is one that we should all strive to live up to. Because Arizona deserves nothing less than a leader committed to always putting country first," Kelly told the newspaper.

Kelly is also married to former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound to the head during a shooting at a Tucson event that killed six people and injured 13. After the shooting, Kelly and Giffords went on to co-found Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun control advocacy group.

Masters, an acolyte of billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, tried to penetrate Kelly’s independent image, aligning him with Biden’s failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and tamp down on rampant inflation.

He earned Trump’s endorsement after claiming “Trump won in 2020,” but under pressure during a debate last month, he acknowledged he hasn’t seen evidence the election was rigged. He later doubled down on the false claim that Trump won.