The Associated Press has finally officially announced that Democrat, five-term House member, and Iraq War veteran Ruben Gallego has defeated television-news-anchor-turned-right-wing-MAGA-Republican-conspiracy-theorist Kari Lake and will become Arizona's first Latino U.S. senator.
Gallego took to social media late Monday night to livestream his remarks to a crowd of supporters at his headquarters. AP News reports that with Gallego's win, the GOP will have 53 seats in the 100-member Senate. AP News also provides a brief bio of newly elected Senator Gallego:
The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago by a single mother and eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that sustained heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend.
Kari Lake's Senate loss comes on the heels of her previous Arizona gubernatorial loss in 2022, to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake never actually officially conceded that race, and, AP News reports, referred to herself in her 2023 book, Unafraid: Just Getting Started, as the "lawful governor" of Arizona. Maybe she'll get back to the futile, delusional task of trying to be governor now!
After the race was called, Gallego wrote on his Twitter/X, simply, "Gracias, Arizona!" I don't know what Kari Lake wrote on hers, though, because she blocked me years ago! Unsurprisingly, Kari Lake's "Official Campaign Twitter Account" went instantly into victim mode, however, posting:
- Outspent 4 to 1
- Given 100% negative coverage by the propaganda press
- Abandoned by Senate Leadership Fund
- Explicitly targeted by the people tasked with counting your (and her) votes
- Never stops fighting
I truly hope this is the last we see of Kari Lake. Part of me fears she'll end up in Trump's cabinet, but, then, even Trump doesn't like losers, so maybe we're safe from four more years of Kari Lake! Congrats, Ruben Gallego!
