Centrist Democrat Kyrsten Sinema flips Arizona Senate seat

In a year of liberal challenges to President Donald Trump, an avowed centrist scored the Democratic Party's biggest coup -- flipping a red state's U.S. Senate seat.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema won the Arizona Senate seat being vacated by Republican Jeff Flake. The race against Republican Rep. Martha McSally was tight enough that a winner wasn't decided until Monday, after a slow count of mail-in ballots gave her an insurmountable lead.

Sinema's win achieves a longtime Democratic goal of making Arizona, with its growing Latino population, a competitive state. And she did it by pointedly not running against the president, or even critiquing his hardline immigration stance.

"She didn't put the progressive bit in her mouth and run with it," said Chuck Coughlin, a GOP strategist in Phoenix. "She spit it out and did something else." Sinema targeted moderate Republican and independent women by painting herself as a nonpartisan problem-solver who voted to support Trump's agenda 60 percent of the time. Her nearly single-issue campaign talked about the importance of health care and protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

She knew McSally was vulnerable there because she backed the Republicans' failed attempt to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.

Sinema tailored her campaign for conservative-leaning Arizona rather than the national environment, but it may be a guide for Democrats who hope to expand the electoral map in 2020.

While some liberals won important races in California, Colorado and Kansas, the left's highest-profile champions disappointed on Election Day.

Rep. Beto O'Rourke fell short in his challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas. Stacey Abrams trails her Republican opponent in the still undecided bitter Georgia gubernatorial race, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who once led in the polls in the race for Florida governor, is now awaiting the results of a recount.

Sinema prevailed while the Democratic candidate for governor, David Garcia, ran as an avowed progressive and got trounced by Republican incumbent Doug Ducey.

"Kyrsten was the perfect candidate for this race," said Democratic strategist Chad Campbell, who previously served with Sinema in Arizona's state legislature. "We saw that with Garcia."
"What are you going to do for people who are a little more on the left?" voter Petra Morrison asked. The candidate said she wasn't focused on party labels or ideology. Morrison later told a reporter she was going to vote for Sinema, even though "she seems to come across as a Democrat in sheep's clothing."
"The way he talks just to the public, it's not right," Villelas said. "I want to vote and get him out and get someone in for the people." Ron Horsford, a 50-year-old Republican, was at the same event and said he was excited to vote for Sinema. He liked her message of "I'm going to work with the other side."