Kelly wins Arizona U.S. Senate race

Democrat Mark Kelly won Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat late Friday, according to preliminary unofficial numbers from The Associated Press. Kelly won with almost 52 percent of the vote. His opponent, Blake Masters, garnered 46 percent of the vote, with third-party candidates and write-ins accounting for the remainder.

Who are the candidates?  Kelly won a special election to fill John McCain’s Arizona senate seat in 2020. He campaigned to keep that seat by focusing on issues like inflation, water supply in Arizona, and immigration reform. He is a former Navy pilot and astronaut. As a legislator, he sometimes went against the Democratic Party’s direction on topics like drilling, pandemic restrictions, and presidential nominees. Masters, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. The 36-year-old entrepreneur with a background in law, technology, and business is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, is highly critical of Big Tech, and maintains that the 2020 election was neither free nor fair. He has suggested supporting Ukraine might not be in the United States’ best interests.

Dig deeper: Read our political reporting team’s election guide for Arizona.