Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has defeated Republican Martha McSally to win a close U.S. Senate race in Arizona and become the first female senator elected to represent Arizona in the Senate.,
Sinema won Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat Monday in a race that was among the most closely watched in the nation, beating McSally in the battle to replace GOP Sen. Jeff Flake.
The three-term congresswoman won after a slow vote count that dragged on for nearly a week after voters went to the polls on November 6.
She becomes Arizona’s first Democratic U.S. senator since 1994, and the country’s first openly bisexual senator.
Sinema (above) won Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat Monday in a race that was among the most closely watched in the nation, beating McSally in the battle to replace GOP Sen. Jeff Flake
Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally posted a concession video Monday on Twitter in which she congratulated Sinema.
‘I just called Kyrsten Sinema and congratulated her on becoming Arizona’s first female senator after a hard-fought battle,’ McSally said in the video as she is seen next to her dog on a living room couch.
‘I’m so grateful for everyone who voted for me,’ McSally said as she held her dog’s paw.
McSally, the first ever woman to fly combat missions for the United States Air Force, called her supporters her ‘wingmen and women.’
Sinema’s win cemented Arizona as a swing state after years of Republican dominance.
Sinema portrayed herself as a moderate who works across the aisle to get things done.
McSally, a former Air Force pilot who embraced President Donald Trump after opposing him during the 2016 elections, had claimed that Sinema’s anti-war protests 15 years ago disqualified her and said one protest amounted to what she called ‘treason.’
But during her six years in Congress, Sinema built one of most centrist records in the Democratic caucus, and she voted for bills backed by Trump more than 60 per cent of the time.
Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally posted a concession video Monday on Twitter in which she congratulated her Democratic opponent, Kyrsten Sinema, for winning the U.S. Senate seat in a tightly contested race
She backed legislation increasing penalties against people in the country illegally who commit crimes.
McSally’s attacks on Sinema reached back more than 15 years, when Sinema was a Green Party spokeswoman and liberal activist.
McSally backed Trump’s tax cut, border security and the Affordable Care Act repeal agenda as she survived a three-way GOP primary in August, defeating two conservative challengers who claimed her support for Trump was fake.
McSally also campaigned on her military record and support for the Armed Forces.
Sinema attacked McSally’s leadership of last year’s failed Affordable Care Act repeal effort as a sign that she would not protect Arizona residents with preexisting medical conditions.
McSally argued that she would protect patients, despite her vote on the bill that would have removed many of those protections.
The contest drew more than $90million in spending, including more than $58million by outside groups, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Attack ads by both sides clogged the airwaves for months.
Sinema, 42, has a law degree, worked as a social worker and was a political activist in her 20s, running as an independent Green Party candidate for the Arizona House.
She then became a Democrat and served several terms in the state Legislature.
Sinema started as an overt liberal but developed a reputation for compromise among her Republican peers, laying the groundwork to tack to the center.
Flake was an outspoken critic of Trump and announced in 2017 that he would not seek re-election, acknowledging he could not win a GOP primary in the current political climate
When the 9th Congressional District was created after the 2010 Census, Sinema ran for the Phoenix-area seat as a centrist and won the 2012 election.
McSally, 52, was the first female Air Force pilot to fly in combat, flying A-10 attack jets.
She also was the first woman to command a fighter squadron, again in A-10s.
McSally lost her first race in Arizona’s 2nd congressional district in 2012, when she was narrowly defeated by Democratic Rep. Ron Barber, who replaced Rep. Gabby Giffords after she was wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt.
But McSally came back to win the 2014 election, beating Barber by a narrow margin.
She was re-elected in 2016.
Flake was an outspoken critic of Trump and announced in 2017 that he would not seek re-election, acknowledging he could not win a GOP primary in the current political climate.
His support of the president’s initiatives, however, was mixed.
He strongly backed last year’s tax cut bill but criticized Trump’s positions on free trade.