Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, is projected to defeat Republican opponent Rep. Martha McSally, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
As of Sunday, Sinema had 49.57 percent of the vote, or 1,071,280 ballots cast, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office reported. McSally, meanwhile, had 48.08 percent support or 1,038,988 votes.
Projection: Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D) has defeated Rep. Martha McSally (R) in #AZSEN. This thing has been over for a while.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 12, 2018
Sinema’s campaign manager Andrew Piatt declared his boss’s lead over McSally as “insurmountable.”
“McSally’s campaign said today’s results would be her ‘firewall’ but as we expected, no firewall emerged,” Piatt wrote in a statement. “McSally has lost every batch of votes from Maricopa County and today, Kyrsten won by 6.25 percent – nearly double her overrall performance in the county to date.”
“Kyrsten has now expanded her overall lead to 32,640 or 1.52 percent, meaning McSally would have to win the remainder of Maricopa County ballots by 22 percent to take the lead in this race,” he added. “This is not plausible. Kyrsten will be declared the next U.S. Senator from Arizona.”
NEW: Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign releases statement on the state of the Arizona Senate race, calling her lead “insurmountable.” #abc15 pic.twitter.com/ujtqx7ZQbi
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) November 12, 2018
But Jim Bognet, the McSally campaign’s CEO, wrote in a Sunday statement that their side was yet to give up hope.
“Today our vote total grew at a greater rate than expected, and we expanded our vote margins in rural areas counting mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day,” he said. “The latest release provides compelling evidence that the remaining uncounted ballots are favorable to Martha. And we will continue our effort to make sure all lawful ballots are counted.”
Sinema and McSally are vying to become Arizona’s first woman senator, replacing retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake in the upper chamber.
[Opinion: Another video of Kyrsten Sinema trashing Arizona: ‘The meth lab of democracy’]
