Blake Masters refuses to award Arizona Senate race to Mark Kelly

Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters refused to concede his race against incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly on Saturday, hours after news outlets called the election in Kelly’s favor – and vowed to keep fighting until “every legal vote is counted.” .

“For my people who have been knocking on doors in the 115 degree heat and for the over one million Arizonans who have put their trust in me, we will make sure every legal vote is counted,” Masters wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

“If Senator Kelly ends up having more of it than I do, then I’ll congratulate him on a hard-fought victory,” he continued. “But the voters decide, not the media; let’s count the votes.”

With an estimated 85% of the Arizona vote count, Kelly has a substantial 5.7% lead over Masters, according to RealClearPolitics.

But Republicans insist that the 395,000 ballots are still pending Beginning late Friday — most of them were cast in Republican-leaning counties on Election Day — they’ll be trending heavily in their favor, stoking their hopes of a photo-finish victory for both the Masters and GOP governor hopeful Kari Lake, who Democrat Katie Hobbs trailed by just 31,000 votes.