Arizona Elects Katie Hobbs And Reelects Sen. Mark Kelly

The 2022 midterm elections have been a huge success for Democrats in Arizona, as they retained the Senate seat and turned the governor’s office blue.

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs won her race against Republican Kari Lake, and incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly was reelected, defeating Republican candidate Blake Masters.

Decision Desk HQ called Katie Hobbs as the projected winner in the Arizona gubernatorial race on Nov. 14 at 8:50 p.m. ET.

Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly was projected to be the winner of the Arizona Senate race on Nov. 11 at 10:08 p.m. ET.

The state, which voted for former president Donald Trump in 2016 and then President Joe Biden in 2020, was at the center of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. On Tuesday, voters had a chance to embrace Trumpism with two Republicans who followed his playbook or to stick with the Democrats who had proudly — but barely — turned the state blue.

The Senate race between Kelly and Masters was one of the most watched races in the country.

Kelly, the husband of former Congress member Gabby Giffords, first took office in 2020 as a result of a special election after the death of former senator John McCain. It became the first time since 1953 that Arizona had two Democrats in the Senate — Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

As he came up for reelection, the former navy pilot and astronaut focused his campaign on making healthcare more affordable, protecting abortion rights, creating more jobs, increasing wages in Arizona, and funding federal benefits like Social Security and Medicare.

Masters, a 36-year-old first-time candidate, focused on issues that aligned with the broader GOP messaging for the 2022 midterms, such as reducing crime, controlling the border, increasing spending for the US military, and supporting restrictions on abortion.

Masters also campaigned on putting an end to overall “wokeness,” per his campaign website, and during the Republican primary, he described abortion as a form of “genocide.”