These major Arizona races do not yet have a winner after Election Day

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Although the presidential election was declared for former President Donald J. Trump in Arizona, vote counting continues throughout the state. While about 70% of the votes had been counted by Wednesday night, election officials said efforts would continue for a few days after the election.

State law gives county election officials about two weeks to complete the work.

Meanwhile, several other deeply consequential races in Arizona remain too close to call. Election results in Arizona are unofficial until local and state officials have counted all ballots and certified the results, but media organizations call races when it becomes mathematically improbable for the trailing candidate to catch up. Official election results are not certified until near the end of the month, although media organizations and campaigns often project the results sooner.

Full, unofficial election results are expected to take days. The more early ballots that were turned in at polling places and elsewhere, the longer it will take to count votes and decide close races. Officials in populous Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, currently estimate it will take 10 to 13 days to complete the count.

As Arizonans continue to wait for results, these races are still too close to call:

US Senate election

One of the few remaining races to determine the makeup of the U.S. Senate, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. has held on to a lead against her Republican opponent, former TV news anchor and staunch Trump supporter Kari Lake.

Although Gallego, whose victory would make him Arizona’s first Latino senator, took a large early lead over Lake Tuesday night into Wednesday, the margins have tightened as more votes are counted. At a Democratic Party rally on Election Day, Gallego stopped short of claiming victory, but spoke of the historic nature of his campaign and hopeful election.

With thousands more votes to count, the two candidates were unusually quiet Wednesday as the tally moved in Lake’s direction.

Gallego ran on a platform to protect access to abortion, promote affordable housing and secure Arizona’s water supply. Lake ran on a platform to prevent access to abortion and secure the border.

Whoever wins will succeed retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who left the race in March.

The uncertainty in Arizona comes after Republicans gained control of the Senate on Election Day, flipping seats in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

US presidential election

The result is irrelevant to the national presidential election, but Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes are still up for grabs for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. The margin between the candidates remains among the narrowest for swing states, although Trump led Harris by about 5 percentage points.

Trump and Harris campaigned aggressively in Arizona throughout the election season, with both candidates visiting the state several times. The narrow margin between the candidates reflects the influence of independent voters in the Grand Canyon State, although the final decision by Arizona voters will not move the dial in the national outcome.

Arizona’s 1st Congressional District

The lead in the race has changed hands, and the American rep. David Schweikert now has the edge over Democratic challenger Amish Shah in Arizona’s Scottsdale-area 1st Congressional District, but the race remains close.

Schweikert, the embattled representative who has represented Arizona in DC since 2011, is widely seen as one of the most vulnerable sitting members of Congress. In 2022, he beat a relatively unknown Democratic challenger by less than a percentage point.

The outcome of the election may not come for days or weeks as Arizona ballots are counted.

Out of 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, this race is one of the few that both parties have seen as up for grabs this year. That means it will help decide which party controls the federal government’s lower house from 2025, and by what margin.

Schweikert has kept a relatively low profile; his messages focused on the economy and the need to reduce the size of the federal deficit.

Shah, a physician and former state legislator, beat out a crowded field of Democrats for the nomination. His campaign leaned into the issues of immigration, abortion and public education funding.

Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District

Incumbent Rep. Eli Crane maintains a lead over his Democratic challenger, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, in the 2nd Congressional District, but a winner has not yet been declared in the race.

Crane took an early lead according to Election Day returns, though the race is closer than expected, an outcome predicted by several prominent political analysts.

The district includes Apache, Coconino, Graham, Greenlee and Navajo counties as well as parts of Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties.

Crane, a self-described “outsider” and former military sniper, has endorsed Trump. Nez’s campaign marks the first time a Native American candidate from Arizona advanced past the primary in a congressional race.

Arizona’s 4th Congressional District

Incumbent Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., has maintained a significant lead over Republican candidate Kelly Cooper, but is not yet the declared winner. Stanton ran unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination, while Cooper beat three other candidates in the Republican primary.

Stanton has represented Arizona’s 4th Congressional District, which includes major Maricopa County cities such as Tempe and large parts of Mesa and Chandler, since 2019. He also served as mayor of Phoenix from 2012 to 2018.

Cooper attacked Stanton in a televised debate last month, saying he had little to show for his six years in office.

Arizona’s 6th Congressional District

In a 2022 rematch, incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., faced Democratic former state lawmaker Kirsten Engel, an environmental lawyer whom he defeated by less than two percentage points two years ago. By the end of Wednesday, the two remained neck-and-neck, with the race still too close to call.

Ciscomani is a free market Republican and served as an aide to former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, also a Republican. The race is assessed as a toss-up. Arizona’s congressional delegation has a six-to-three Republican advantage, so flipping both seats could flip the delegation to Democrats.

While Engel had a healthy lead in the Tucson area, the race remains a toss-up. The district spans Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Graham and Greenlee Counties.

Mesa Mayor

Mesa mayoral candidate Mark Freeman had a slight lead over Scott Smith Wednesday night, but the race remains close. The two candidates vying to lead the state’s third-largest city prevailed in a crowded primary.

Without major differences between the two establishment candidates, the race comes down to the nuances of their backgrounds, vision for the city and ideology. The race has remained largely civil and without controversy.

Throughout the campaign, Smith, a former mayor, criticized the city for not being business-friendly enough. Freeman, a firefighter for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department for over three decades, defended his eight years on the City Council in response.

Scottsdale Mayor

Incumbent Mayor David Ortega continued to trail former City Councilwoman Lisa Borowsky Wednesday night, but the race still isn’t over.

If Borowsky, a local attorney and former elected leader of the community, prevails, it would represent one of the major election campaigns in a city in the valley. While Ortega beat Borowsky in the 2020 mayoral race, Borowsky’s strong showing in early voting numbers has cast serious doubt on the expectation that the incumbent would cruise to victory.

Ortega, an architect who first took office in 2020, was seeking his second term as Scottsdale mayor. He was the top vote-getter during the three-way primary election in July, when former City Council member Linda Milhaven was knocked out of the lineup.

The two candidates were critical of each other’s leadership in a heated race that involved mutual barb-throwing.

Ortego appeared to concede the race to Borowsky Wednesday morning, but walked back the concession after acknowledging there were still many votes to count.

This story will be updated as election results are reported.

Hannah Dreyfus is an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X @Hannah_Dreyfus or threads @hannahdreyfus.