DEMOCRATIC Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona has won re-election, CNN and NBC News projected on Friday (Nov 11) night, defeating Republican Blake Masters and helping Democrats keep open the possibility of retaining control of the Senate.

Kelly’s victory over Masters, a venture capitalist, comes despite particularly high inflation in the Grand Canyon State and President Joe Biden’s flagging approval ratings that have fallen below 40 per cent in some recent polls of Arizona voters. 

Strong fundraising and a drive to separate himself from Biden on immigration and other issues helped Kelly hold off his challenger, as did controversial statements from Masters, who was backed by former President Donald Trump.

Democrats now control the Senate, which is split 50-50 between the two parties, because of Vice President Kamala Harris’s ability to break tie votes. 

Kelly first won his Senate seat in a 2020 special election with just 51 per cent of the vote, a victory built from his compelling personal story and an electorate weary of Trump. A former naval aviator and astronaut, Kelly is married to former US Representative Gabby Giffords, who survived bullet wounds to the head from a mass shooting in Tucson in 2011.

Kelly amassed a significant fundraising advantage over Masters, raising more than US$73 million for his re-election bid by Sep 30, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign donations. Masters raised just US$9.7 million. Outside Democratic-aligned groups vastly outspent their GOP counterparts. The Senate Leadership Fund, a group allied with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, cut its spending in Arizona to concentrate on other battleground races.

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Masters struggled to lure support from swing voters and moderate Republicans. He called the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol a “false flag” operation, suggested Social Security should be privatized, and said that “Black people, frankly” were responsible for the rise in gun violence. NBC News reported in August that Masters scrubbed his campaign website of his more rigid views on abortion, including supporting a constitutional amendment protecting personhood.

Until he resigned in March, Masters ran technology billionaire Peter Thiel’s private foundation and venture capital fund. Thiel was a major donor in Trump’s 2016 presidential run and is the largest contributor to super PACs supporting Masters and Ohio GOP Senate nominee JD Vance, who Trump also endorsed. BLOOMBERG.