In the days-long saga that is Maricopa County's vote counting following Tuesday's midterm election, another batch of ballots favoring Incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Kelly dropped Friday evening around 10:00 p.m. ET that caused Decision Desk HQ to call the race for Kelly.
Decision Desk HQ projects Sen. Mark Kelly (D) wins re-election to the U.S. Senate in Arizona.#DecisionMade: 10:08pm EST
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 12, 2022
Follow more results here: https://t.co/erllKAE1oN pic.twitter.com/R1XsJ9ARj3
According to Decision Desk HQ, at the time the race was called, Kelly had a lead of nearly 124,000 votes in the grand tally, or nearly 52 percent to Masters' slightly more than 46 percent with an estimated 89 percent of votes counted. Libertarian candidate Marc Victor had 2.12 percent.
DDHQ Race Update (est. 89% in): AZ US Senate
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 12, 2022
Mark Kelly (D-i): 1,128,917
(51.78%)
Blake Masters (R): 1,005,001
(46.10%)
Marc Victor (L): 46,189
(2.12%)
Follow more results here: https://t.co/erllKAE1oN
The final drop of more than 70K ballots before Kelly's tight contest against Trump-endorsed challenger Blake Masters was called saw Kelly receive some 8,000 more votes than his GOP opponent.
New Maricopa Batch Update--->
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) November 12, 2022
Kelly: 40,710
Masters: 32,318
(+Kelly 8,392)
Hobbs: 40,055
Lake: 34,075
(+Hobbs 5,980) https://t.co/JFBQ2XTQt0 pic.twitter.com/i0RFAMh96z
On Thursday, Masters was optimistic on Twitter, predicting that the Democrat-favoring ballot drops would soon end and more ballots for him would begin being reported, but in the end more Kelly votes kept coming in.
We are seeing the last few big, pro-Dem drops. Soon they’ll run out, & then there are hundreds of thousands of pro-R ballots to count. We will overtake them and win. 🇺🇸
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) November 11, 2022
The call for Kelly on Friday night leaves just one big-ticket race left to settle out in the Grand Canyon State, the gubernatorial contest between Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake. At present, DDHQ has the two divided by little more than 30,000 votes with Hobbs at 50.72 percent to Lake's 49.28 percent.
On the national level, the Democrats' retention of Kelly's seat in the U.S. Senate brings the balance of power tally to 49 seats apiece for the two parties fighting to control the upper chamber.
Nevada's U.S. Senate contest remains to be called, but hope remains alive for the GOP to flip the seat if Adam Laxalt defeats incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto.
If Laxalt wins, the GOP then would need to also triumph in the Georgia runoff on December 6 in order to take the majority. If they lose one but not the other, then the U.S. Senate will remain unchanged as far as power dynamics go with a 50-50 split and the need for VP Kamala Harris to break any tie votes. But if Laxalt and Walker both lose, then Democrats gain the upper hand in the Senate with 51 seats.
Thus, another day draws to a close without a definitive call yet on which party will be in control of the House or the Senate beginning in 2023.