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    • These big Arizona races don’t have a winner after Election Day
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    These big Arizona races don’t have a winner after Election Day

    Vaseline Posted on

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    Although the presidential election was called for former President Donald J. Trump, vote counting in Arizona continues across the state. Although about 70% of votes had been counted by Wednesday evening, election officials said efforts would continue for several days after the election.

    State law gives county election officials about two weeks to complete the work.

    Meanwhile, several other high-consequence races in Arizona remain too close to call. Election results in Arizona are unofficial until local and state officials have counted all ballots and certified the results, but media organizations call races when it becomes mathematically unlikely that the trailing candidate will catch up. Official election results are not certified until the end of the month, although media organizations and campaigns often project results earlier.

    Full, unofficial election results are expected to take days. The more early ballots turned in at polling places and other locations, the longer it will take to count votes and determine close races. Officials in populous Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, currently estimate it will take 10 to 13 days to complete the count.

    As Arizonans continue to wait for results, these are the races that are still too close to call:

    US Senate elections

    One of the few remaining races that will determine the makeup of the U.S. Senate, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. has maintained a lead against his Republican opponent, former television news anchor and staunch Trump supporter Kari Lake.

    Although Gallego, whose victory would make him Arizona’s first Latino senator, took a wide lead over Lake on Tuesday night and Wednesday, the margins have narrowed as more votes are counted. At a Democratic Party rally on Election Day, Gallego did not claim victory but spoke of the historic nature of his campaign and election hopefuls.

    With thousands of votes still to be counted, the two candidates were unusually quiet Wednesday as the numbers trended toward Lake.

    Gallego ran on a platform of protecting access to abortion, promoting housing affordability and securing Arizona’s water supply. Lake ran on a platform of preventing access to abortion and securing the border.

    Whoever wins will succeed in retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who left the race in March.

    The uncertainty in Arizona comes after Republicans won control of the Senate on Election Day, flipping seats in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

    US presidential election

    The result is immaterial to the national presidential race, but Arizona’s eleven Electoral College votes are still up for grabs for Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. The margin between the candidates remains one of the smallest for swing states, even though Trump led Harris by about 5 percentage points.

    Trump and Harris campaigned aggressively in Arizona throughout the election season, with both candidates visiting the state multiple times. The narrow margin between the candidates reflects the influence of independent voters in the Grand Canyon State, even though the final decision of Arizona voters will not affect the national outcome.

    Arizona’s first congressional district

    The lead in the race has changed hands and U.S. Rep. David Schweikert now has the advantage over Democratic opponent Amish Shah in the 1st Congressional District in Scottsdale, Arizona, but the race remains close.

    Schweikert, the embattled representative who has represented Arizona in D.C. since 2011, is widely seen as one of Congress’ most vulnerable incumbents. In 2022, he defeated a relatively unknown Democratic challenger by less than one percentage point.

    The outcome of the election may not be known for days or weeks as ballots are counted in Arizona.

    Of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, this race is one of the few up for grabs by both parties this year. This means that it will help determine which party controls the lower house of the federal government from 2025, and by what margin.

    Schweikert has kept a relatively low profile; his messages focused on the economy and the need to reduce the size of the federal deficit.

    Shah, a physician and former state lawmaker, defeated a crowded field of Democrats for the nomination. His campaign focused on the issues of immigration, abortion and public education funding.

    Arizona’s 2nd congressional district

    Incumbent Rep. Eli Crane maintains a lead over his Democratic challenger, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, in the 2nd Congressional District, but no winner has yet been declared in the race.

    According to Election Day results, Crane took an early lead, although the race is closer than expected, an outcome predicted by several prominent political analysts.

    The district includes Apache, Coconino, Graham, Greenlee and Navajo counties, as well as parts of Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties.

    Crane, who calls himself an “outsider” and former military sniper, has endorsed Trump. Nez’s campaign marks the first time an Arizona Native American candidate advanced past the primary in a congressional race.

    Arizona’s 4th congressional district

    Incumbent Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., has maintained a substantial lead over Republican candidate Kelly Cooper but is not yet the declared winner. Stanton ran unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination, while Cooper defeated three other candidates in the Republican primaries.

    Stanton has represented Arizona’s 4th Congressional District since 2019, which includes major cities in Maricopa County such as Tempe and large parts of Mesa and Chandler. He also served as mayor of Phoenix from 2012 to 2018.

    Cooper attacked Stanton in a televised debate last month, saying he had little to show during his six years as president.

    Arizona’s 6th congressional district

    In a 2022 rematch, incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., faced Democratic former state lawmaker Kirsten Engel, an environmental lawyer whom he defeated by less than two percentage points two years ago. By the end of Wednesday, the two remained neck-and-neck, with the race still too close to call.

    Ciscomani is an at-large Republican and served as an aide to former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, also a Republican. The race is judged as a toss-up. Arizona’s congressional delegation has a Republican advantage of six to three, so flipping both seats could shift the delegation to the Democrats.

    Although Engel had a healthy lead in the Tucson district, the race remains a toss-up. The district spans Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Graham and Greenlee counties.

    Mesa mayor

    Mesa mayoral candidate Mark Freeman held a narrow lead over Scott Smith on Wednesday night, but the race remains close. The two candidates vying to lead the state’s third-largest city won the crowded primary.

    With no major differences between the two establishment candidates, the race comes down to the nuances of their backgrounds, vision of the city and ideology. The race has remained largely civil and without controversy.

    Throughout the campaign, Smith, a former mayor, criticized the city for not being business-friendly enough. Freeman, a firefighter for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department for more than three decades, defended his eight years on the City Council in response.

    Mayor of Scottsdale

    Incumbent Mayor David Ortega continued to pursue former City Councilwoman Lisa Borowsky on Wednesday night, but the race is not over.

    If Borowsky, a local attorney and former elected community leader, prevails, it would mark one of the bigger electoral upsets in a Valley city. While Ortega defeated Borowsky in the 2020 mayoral contest, Borowsky’s strong performance in the primary election has cast serious doubt on expectations that the incumbent president would cruise to victory.

    Ortega, an architect who first took office in 2020, was seeking his second term as Scottsdale mayor. He was the top vote-getter during the three-way primary in July, when former City Councilwoman Linda Milhaven was knocked out of the race.

    The two candidates were critical of each other’s leadership in a heated race that saw barbs thrown between them.

    Ortego appeared to concede the race to Borowsky on Wednesday morning, but walked back the concession after acknowledging that there were still many votes to be counted.

    This story will be updated as election results are announced.

    Hannah Dreyfus is an investigative journalist for The Arizona Republic. Reach her out [email protected]. Follow her on X @Hannah_Dreyfus or Wires @hannahdreyfus.

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