Kyrsten Sinema Surges Ahead in Arizona U.S. Senate Race

Sinema, who would be the first out bisexual U.S. senator, was leading by about 9,600 votes this evening. The count continues.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

November 08 2018 3:11 PM EST

November 08 2018 4:41 PM EST

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In the race for U.S. senator from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, seeking to become the first out bisexual member of the chamber, had a lead of more than 9,600 votes over Martha McSally as of Thursday evening.

The race is far from decided, but the vote count announced by the Arizona Secretary of State's this evening puts Sinema, the Democratic candidate, in a much better position than earlier in the day, when she trailed her Republican rival by about 17,000 votes, The Arizona Republic reports.

At midday, McSally had 856,848 votes, or 49.37 percent, while Sinema had 839,775. or 48.39 percent, according to the Republic. But by 6:20 p.m., the numbers had changed significantly. At that point, Sinema had 932,870 votes, representing 49.1 percent, while McSally had 923,260, or 48.59 percent. Most of the remainder has gone to Green Party candidate Angela Green.

Sinema and McSally, both currently members of the U.S. House, are vying to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, who did not seek reelection. Either would be the state's first female U.S. senator. Hundreds of thousands of ballots remain to be counted, but Sinema's campaign manager, Andrew Platt, expressed optimism in a statement to the Republic.

"We have spent the hours since the polls closed tracking down ballots and know there are more than 600,000 left to be counted across the state," he said. "We also know that when the Maricopa County Recorder releases its first batch of ballots this evening, there will still be approximately half a million votes left to count. Once they are counted, we are confident that Kyrsten Sinema will be the next senator for the state of Arizona."