A negative nail biter: McSally vs. Sinema in Arizona’s senate race

The states located in the US southwest-Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as well as areas of southwestern Texas and southern California-are gradually electing more Democrats than Republicans to the US House. Republican John McCain first won his US Senate seat in 1986 and Republican Jon Kyl initially won his seat in 1994. In their respective years, both races were open seats when incumbent Senators Barry Goldwater and Dennis DeConcini retired from Congress. Over his career, McCain competed in six Senate races and won all of them while capturing, on average, 62 percent of the vote. Kyl won his Senate seat three times and also captured, on average, 62 percent of the vote. Two US House members, Democrat Krysten Sinema, first elected in 2012, and Republican Martha McSally, elected in 2014, easily won their party’s respective primaries. During the length of the US Senate campaign in Arizona, polling indicated a closely contested race.