Sinema takes lead in Senate race to replace Flake

Photo By Alex Kline/Arizona PBS: Kyrsten Sinema has taken the lead in the latest vote count for Jeff Flake’s open seat in the U.S. Senate, but the race is still too close to call. 

By Jon Johnson

jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com

PHOENIX – After trailing Martha McSally (R) since the first election results began to trickle in, Kyrsten Sinema (D) took a 9,610-vote lead Thursday after additional early votes were counted and processed.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office updated its ballot tally early Thursday evening and as of 6:30 p.m. Sinema had 932,870 votes compared to 923,260 votes for McSally.

However, there still may be as many as 500,000 votes left to count, so it is still too early to determine who will ultimately prevail in the seat.

O’Halleran re-elected

In a race the Gila Herald first called early Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D) CD-1 withstood a furious battle with Wendy Rogers (R) to retain his seat for a second term.

Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald: U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran has been re-elected to a second term. 

As of 6:30 p.m. Thursday, O’Halleran had a 15,128 vote lead with 119,290 votes compared to 104,162 votes for Rogers.

O’Halleran had the vote lead in Apache, Coconino, Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties, while Rogers had the lead in Graham, Greenlee, Pima, and Pinal counties as of the ballot tally release Thursday evening.