Arizona, a key general election battleground state in the Southwest, will hold its primary election on Tuesday, setting the stage for fierce fall showdowns that could determine control of the House and Senate.
The race that’s attracting the most attention nationally is to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat who switched to being an independent and will not seek a second six-year term in the Senate.
Kali Lake, a leading Republican Senate candidate, collaborated with former President Trump on a televised rally on the eve of the primary. Lake is a key surrogate for Trump in his bid to retake the White House, and she spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two weeks ago.
SINEMA Blockbuster 2024 Announcement
Arizona Senate candidate Kali Lake speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16. (Reuters/Mike Seeger)
Lake is a former TV host and huge MAGA supporter who refused to acknowledge his narrow loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race, but he has won President Trump’s endorsement in his bid for Senate, one of the few races that could determine whether Republicans regain the Senate majority.
WATCH: Kali Lake offers an olive branch to Arizona voters
In addition to having the endorsement of the Republican presidential candidate, Lake also has a significant fundraising advantage over his GOP primary rivals, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and neuroscientist Elizabeth Ray.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/File)
When Sinema announced in March that she would not run for reelection, she was already facing a challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who launched his Senate campaign last year. Gallego is unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Click here to get the FOX News app
Democrats hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, but Republicans have been favored by the allocation of Senate seats, meaning Democrats have retained 23 of the 34 seats at stake, including three in Republican-leaning states that Trump won handily in 2020: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.
The other five seats are in key battleground states that President Biden won narrowly in 2020: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Congressman Ruben Gallego (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)
Republicans hold fragile majorities in House elections, and in Arizona, Democrats are seeking to unseat two vulnerable Republican incumbents in districts Biden carried four years ago.
In the 1st District, which includes northeast Phoenix and its suburbs, seven-term Republican incumbent Rep. David Schweikert is the front-runner in a primary field that also includes businessman Robert Bakke and Kim George, a former FBI agent and corporate investigator.
There are many candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.
In the southeastern state, Republican Rep. Juan Siscomani is running for a second term in a district that includes much of the Tucson suburbs.
He faces off in the Republican primary on Tuesday, which is also being challenged by candidate Kathleen Wynne, who came in third in the 2022 nomination race.
If Siscomani wins the primary as expected, he will face Democrat Kysten Engel in November, setting up a very close rematch in the 2022 election.
Meanwhile, in the heavily Republican 8th Congressional District, President Trump has endorsed both leading Republican primary candidates, Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and state attorney general in 2022.
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
