In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally are vying to win the open Senate seat left by Sen. Jeff Flake, who is retiring. McSally is a Republican member of Congress who has been in the House since 2014 and easily won the GOP primary earlier this year. Sinema is a Democratic member of Congress who was elected in 2012 and has served three terms.
McSally is one of the rare Republican women who is putting gender at the forefront of her campaign. She served in the Air Force and was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, and she’s made her barrier-breaking service a part of her campaign.
Sinema is one of the more conservative Democrats in the House — she has even voted with President Trump a few times on key immigration issues. She’s also faced questions about how she has represented her upbringing.
Arizona is a deeply red state — it hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since the 1980s; it went for Trump in 2016; and the last time the state voted for a Democratic presidential candidate was Bill Clinton in 1996. However, demographics in the state are changing, and some experts think it’s one of the red states that might have the potential to go blue this year.