Ruben Gallego was predicted to beat Republican Kari Lake on Monday night. In January, Ruben will become Arizona’s first Latino U.S. Senator.

The Associated Press (AP), NBC, and CNN declared Gallego the winner on Monday, after another batch of Democratic votes in Maricopa County proved that Lake couldn’t possibly overtake him. This resulted in her suffering two consecutive high-profile statewide defeats.

Gallego, 44 posted a simple message to the social media platform X saying: “Gracias Arizona!”

Gallego, when asked at a news conference on Monday night to reflect on his election as Arizona’s first Latino U.S. Senator, said that he did not have many role-models growing up. He told the story of how a Latino attorney was the first to show him that Latinos can go to college without having to work in construction.

Gallego explained, “It means that I can finally repay the favors to many of the people who were my role models growing up and that I didn’t have.” “I didn’t have a dad when I was growing up. My father left early… So I had to rely on many men who were my role models in order to show me how to be a man of morals and character.

“I feel that at least there will be an opportunity for some young kids to say that they can do it. I don’t have to run for Senate. I can go to college. I can get a job. “I can get out of poverty.”

Lake, the former Fox 10 reporter, has not publicly conceded the race. She told reporters on Election Day that she would accept the results. She never accepted her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race and spent years in courts trying to reverse that result.

A social media account of Lake’s campaign, during a weekend with poor results, posted the following message: “A Movement of Love: Of Family. Arizona. “Of America.”

Gallego, the only seat that his party won in the Senate during a disappointing election year for Democrats as the GOP took control of Congress and the White House.

Gallego was a long-time favorite to win the Senate race. He may have even been favored for an easy victory. He narrowly won the race, thanks to the support of Latino voters, who, according to the AP exit poll, were less united on the presidential election.

He will succeed U.S. Senator Kyrsten S. Sinema (I-Ariz. ), whose popularity plummeted under the Biden administration, leading her later to leave the Democratic Party, and then quit a reelection bid that had never started.

She did not publicly endorse the race but acknowledged Gallego’s apparent win in a post on social media that was made Sunday, even before the official results were announced. She asked him to go to Senate orientation next week as she had done in 2018.

Gallego’s victory is the latest in a series of close results that took several days to resolve. Gallego was in the lead in 79 out of 87 polls conducted since Sinema resigned in March. He also led in fundraising when he entered the race back in January 2023.

Lake, on the other hand, received little financial support from his national party, and no help from McConnell’s allies, the Senate Minority Leader, R-Ky.

Gallego was presented as a fighter who had achieved his success through hard work, and a product the American Dream. Gallego is moving to the Senate following five terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and two terms previously in the Arizona House of Representatives.

A bitter campaign

Gallego covered screens in Arizona for months with images of his rise out of poverty as a child in a Chicago single-parent family. He told his supporters on the campaign trail that he got his first mattress at Harvard.

Gallego joined the Marines in 2000 and served in the Iraq War. He recounted his experiences in “They Called Us Lucky” in 2021. After his service he settled in Arizona, and became active in Democratic politics.

After Lake launched a personal attack against him, voters chose Gallego. Lake tried to recast Gallego’s biography in the final weeks by suggesting that Gallego had been “controlled” by the drug cartels because his estranged dad was a drug dealer.

Gallego, when asked about the comment made by her, offered a strong emotional defense which may have resonated among voters. He also highlighted his social ascent.

Gallego, visibly moved, said, “She is raising this because my father abandoned my family and was a drug dealer.” It’s a stain our family had to bear. My mom, my sister and I have worked hard our whole lives to live the American Dream. We also want to honor and serve this country in spite of what he did.

Lake also heavily leaned on the unsealing Gallego’s divorce file from 2016 with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, as an event which would show him in a different and unfavorable way. The Arizona Supreme Court’s refusal to seal the file any longer revealed that there was little information about a case which was widely covered at the time.

He left his wife weeks before she gave her son birth.

The personal attacks against Gallego seem to have outnumbered Lake’s opinion of his voting record for Democratic priorities, and his opposition to Donald Trump as President-elect and to his border wall in Trump’s first term.

Gallego, as a Senate Candidate, quietly left the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus. He also changed his rhetoric regarding border issues.

He said that Arizona cities are on the front lines of the border crisis. This was a different tone from his 2017 congressional testimony, when he stated “Trump’s wall along the border is trying to solve an issue that does not exist.”

Other issues, like his support for abortion, came to the forefront. While Lake’s support for expanding abortion rights was in line with the voters, his position on the issue seemed to be a struggle.

Lake Tahoe’s political misfire continues

Lake’s loss is a further electoral disappointment in her career, especially when juxtaposed to Trump’s victory in Arizona.

She started this new era in her life in 2021. Many Valley residents were familiar with her as she was a regular on Fox 10’s newscasts. She quickly gained national recognition for her unwavering loyalty to Trump’s political agenda.

Lake spent many years in court after her narrow, surprise loss in 2022. She was able to build a reputation for being an election denier. The Trump supporters who comprise the core of GOP were thrilled, but it hardened public opinion by the time Lake entered the Senate race in 2013.

Lake’s aggressive political style was directed at Gallego, Sinema and Democrats in general, as well as many Republicans, the media, and even some Republicans.

In January, she infamously overthrew the Arizona Republican Party chairman with a secretly taped conversation.