August 28, 2018 / Modified aug 29, 2018 11:26 a.m.

McSally to Face Sinema for U.S. Senate Seat

Republican McSally and Democrat Sinema take early leads in preliminary results to fill outgoing Sen. Flake's seat.

mcsally sinema Kyrsten Sinema, left, and Martha McSally.
Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Visit our primary election results page for updated numbers on this race.

In the first results released Tuesday night, Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema held clear leads for their party's nominations.

Sinema declared victory via email just minutes after the first early ballots were counted, and McSally followed less than an hour later.

In her statement, McSally contrasted her November challenge: "My opponent is someone who is left of the Pelosi Democrats, who was a Green Party activist. She protested our troops in a pink tutu and called to shut down Luke Air Force Base. She calls herself a Prada Socialist," McSally said in a statement via email. "The contrast couldn’t be more clear: I have always been true to who I am and have spent my life in service to our great country."

In her statement, Sinema said "As I hear from Arizonans across our state, they tell me they want independent leaders who fight every day to make sure Arizona families can succeed," Sinema wrote. "Tonight, we look ahead and continue fighting to uphold the values we all share: a fair shot at the American Dream and an unwavering commitment to the Arizona we love."

Both party nominees acknowledged Sen. John McCain's death this week in their election night victory statements.

The race for U.S. Senate drew three Republicans vying for a chance at the open seat. They all had previous political experience: McSally has served two terms in the U.S. House; Kelli Ward was elected to two terms in the Arizona Senate; Joe Arpaio served six terms as Maricopa County sheriff.

On the Democratic primary, Sinema has served three terms in the U.S. House, and before that was a state lawmaker. Deedra Abboud is a political newcomer.

McSally and Sinema will join Libertarian Adam Kokesh and Green Party candidate Angela Green on the November ballot.

Results are preliminary, votes continue to be counted statewide.

RepublicanU.S. Senate Primary (REP)

% Candidate Votes
17.80% Arpaio, Joe 116,056
54.57% McSally, Martha 355,776
27.63% Ward, Kelli 180,104

DemocraticU.S. Senate Primary (DEM)

% Candidate Votes
20.66% Abboud, Deedra 104,522
79.34% Sinema, Kyrsten 401,380

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona