Mark Kelly flips John McCain's old Senate seat in Arizona for Democrats

Democratic former astronaut Mark Kelly is Arizona's next senator after defeating appointed Republican Sen. Martha McSally to serve the last two years of the late GOP Sen. John McCain's term.

The hard-fought special election between Kelly, a retired Gulf War U.S. naval aviator who later led Space Shuttle Endeavor's final mission in 2011, and McSally, herself a decorated pilot, is pivotal to deciding the Senate's balance of power. Fox News called the race for Kelly shortly after 11 p.m. on Tuesday, with Kelly earning 54.6% of the vote to McSally's 45.4%.

But despite Kelly's margin of victory, McSally has refused to concede.

"Like Mark said, every vote should be counted," McSally spokeswoman Caroline Anderegg said.

She added, "With 1 million votes to be counted and no Election Day results reported from Maricopa County, the decision to make a call at this point in irresponsible. We will continue to wait for votes to come in. This race is not over."

The Kelly-McSally contest was largely defined by President Trump. One of the two standout moments of their campaigns was McSally's viral refusal during their one and only debate last month to say that she was proud of supporting Trump.

"I’m proud to be fighting for Arizona every single day," she said.

The other was Trump rushing McSally to give brief remarks during a rally last week in Goodyear.

"Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute! One minute, Martha! They don’t want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let’s go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let’s go," the president said.

Kelly, 56, is married to ex-Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords used to represent parts of McSally's old congressional district before she was shot in the head at point-blank range during a 2011 assassination attempt in a supermarket parking lot.

McSally, 54, rose to the rank of colonel during her more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force. She was the first American woman to fly in combat after she was deployed to Kuwait in 1995 and ordered to enforce a no-fly zone in southern Iraq. She was also the first American woman to command a fighter squadron after she was sent to Afghanistan in 2004.

The four-year House lawmaker was appointed to McCain's seat in 2019 by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey after losing Arizona's 2018 open Senate race to Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.