Mark Kelly wins Arizona Senate race, bringing Democrats one seat away from majority
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly will hold on to his U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, pushing Democrats closer to retaining control of the Senate, NBC News projected.
Kelly was leading Republican candidate Blake Masters, who was former President Donald Trump’s pick in the key swing state, almost six percentage points with 85% of the votes in as of Friday night. With Kelly’s win, Democrats need just one of the two seats in Nevada or Georgia that haven’t been called yet.
In Nevada, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt was ahead 1 percentage point with 88% of the votes counted as of Friday morning. Georgia’s Senate race is headed to a runoff election on Dec. 6 between GOP candidate Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was leading more than a percentage point.
Kelly raised and spent vastly more than venture capitalist Masters, bringing in over $81.8 million and spending over $75.9 million through mid-October. Masters, comparison, raised $12.3 million and spent just $9.7 million over the same time frame, according to data compiled the Federal Election Commission.
The Arizona Democrat campaigned on a platform of bipartisanship and promoted his willingness to work across the aisle with Republicans. He was elected to the Senate in 2020 to finish the term of Republican Sen. John McCain, who died of an aggressive form of brain cancer.
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Kelly recently distanced his stance on immigration from the Biden administration when he came out against the decision to end Title 42. The policy, which began during the Trump administration, prevented migrants from entering the country due to Covid.
The Arizona Democrat has also pushed hard for border security. He recently referred to the influx of migrants at the southern border as “a mess” during a debate.
“When the president decided he was going to do something dumb on this and change the rules that would create a bigger crisis, I told him he was wrong. So I pushed back on this administration multiple times,” Kelly said in October.
But Kelly was also a chief negotiator in the CHIPS and Science Act, a key component of President Joe Biden’s economic policies that was signed into law in August.
A former NASA astronaut and Navy pilot, Kelly is married to former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound to the head in 2011.
Democrat Mark Kelly of Arizona will hold on to his U.S. Senate seat, defeating Blake Masters, who was backed former President Donald Trump in the key swing state.
Kelly raised and spent vastly more than venture capitalist Masters, according to data compiled the Federal Election Commission.
The incumbent Democrat campaigned on a platform of bipartisanship and promoted his willingness to work across the aisle with Republicans.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday used a keynote speech at the UN’s COP27 climate conference to take aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Moscow’s war in Ukraine must not thwart global efforts to combat climate change.
Speaking in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Biden said that the energy market volatility and inflationary pressures resulting from the Kremlin’s invasion underline the need for countries to transition away from fossil fuels, adding no country can “use energy as a weapon and hold the global economy hostage.”
“It’s more urgent than ever that we double down on our climate commitments. Russia’s war only enhances the urgency of the need to transition the world off this dependency on fossil fuels,” Biden said, reiterating similar comments world leaders earlier in the week.
The president also used the address to outline how the U.S. aims to meet the climate crisis with “urgency and determination,” announcing a series of funding packages to support emerging nations.