Freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona defeated newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat.
Arizona Senate candidates
Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who is also married to retired Democratic congresswoman-turned-gun-control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, jumped into a variety of issues during his first term in Congress.
Kelly co-authored a congressional stock trading ban with fellow freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, proposing that lawmakers and their immediate family members curb potential conflicts of interests by placing their financial assets in blind trusts.
The bill was one of many that have cropped up since Insider's Conflicted Congress project revealed that dozens of lawmakers and hundreds of senior congressional aides have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 in recent years.
A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kelly also consulted with Pentagon officials about making the nascent Space Force program a success after dubbing it a "dumb idea" in 2019.
Masters was a first-time candidate who vied to reinsert some red into the battleground state after voters handed control of the Senate delegation to Democrats Kelly (2020) and Kyrsten Sinema (2018). Masters migrated from the venture capital world into politics with the help of tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Embattled former President Donald Trump endorsed Masters in early June based on Masters' denial of Joe Biden's lawful victory.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who chaired the Senate GOP's reelection campaign this cycle, warned Masters that he needed to raise more money ASAP. A Masters win would have tipped the balance of power to Republicans, ending the 50-50 split that's been in effect since January 2021.
Voting history in Arizona
Republican Sen. John McCain held Kelly's seat for more than 30 years before dying in office in 2018. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey appointed retired Sen. Jon Kyl and later former Rep. Martha McSally to serve out the rest of McCain's final term. Kelly beat McSally by just over 2 points in the 2020 special election.
President Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump in Arizona, an explosive win that sparked calls for countless audits and election reruns by MAGA supporters enthralled by Trump's baseless claims of election fraud. Fox News famously called Arizona for Biden on election night 2020, a prediction that sent the embattled former president into a rage.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Kelly raised $79.4 million, spent $73.5 million, and had $7.3 million of cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Masters, raised $12 million, spent $9.4 million, and had $2.6 million of cash still left to spend, as of October 19.
Super PACs and party committees combined to pour another $100 million (and counting) into the race, per OpenSecrets. Masters notably benefitted from this outside money. Thiel's pro-Masters Saving Arizona PAC, for one, poured more than $17 million into the race through September.
What experts say
The race between Kelly and Masters was rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
