Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly pads lead over Blake Masters in U.S. Senate race

Update: Sen. Mark Kelly continues her lead over Blake Masters. New results are expected Friday night. Read the latest here.

Sen. Mark Kelly widened his lead over Republican challenger Blake Masters in votes counted Thursday, complicating the GOP's path to taking his seat and control of the Senate as a whole.

Kelly, D-Ariz., gained a net 20,000 votes over Masters throughout the day according to unofficial tallies. The totals reflect about 139,000 ballots across the state, though the bulk — about 78,000 — came from Maricopa County.

There were also multiple batches from Democratic-leaning Pima County.

Overall, Kelly now leads Masters by nearly 115,000 votes, or 5.6 percentage points.

There are roughly 500,000 ballots still to be counted statewide. The bulk of those uncounted ballots are in Maricopa and Pima counties.

Of the ballots counted Thursday, Kelly won 56% and Masters received 42%.

Masters maintained his campaign remains on track in a tweet Thursday night.

"We are seeing the last few big, pro-Dem drops. Soon they'll run out, & then there are hundreds of thousands of pro-R ballots to count. We will overtake them and win," he wrote.

Election coverage: Live news updates | Arizona election results

Control of the Senate hinges on the outcome of the unsettled races in Arizona and Nevada and a runoff in Georgia. Democrats currently hold all those seats and must win two of those three races to retain their majority when the next Congress begins work in January.

As of Thursday night, Republican Adam Laxalt was leading over Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., held a thin lead over Republican Herschel Walker in a race that will not include a Libertarian candidate when it goes to a Dec. 6 runoff.

In Arizona, Kelly still holds to a lead forged over four weeks of early voting. The unofficial results show he led Masters among early voters by 264,000 votes. Entering Thursday, Masters had shaved off 169,000 votes from Kelly's lead among ballots tallied since.

The race still could shift, but to this point it seems to add to national Republican disappointment in a cycle where Democrats displayed rare midterm resilience.

Kelly was a clear favorite to win reelection as late as September. He held a commanding fundraising advantage over Masters. Outside groups were unable to fully even the messaging war, in part because of a funding stalemate between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and billionaire Peter Thiel, who was Masters' mentor and political benefactor.

Masters made a strong showing in their only candidate debate in early October, and he surged in public polling as he effectively hitched his campaign to public appearances to gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who drew large crowds across the state and excited Arizona's conservative base.

In the final days of the campaign, Masters began posting small leads in public polling for the first time in their race.

But Masters' vote totals have run consistently behind his fellow Republicans seeking statewide office. Lake pulled in about 56,000 more votes than Masters in votes counted before Thursday.

And other Republicans, ranging from the relatively low-profile state Treasurer Kimberly Yee to controversial secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, also have pulled in more votes than Masters.

One other hurdle for Masters throughout has been the votes that went to Libertarian Marc Victor, who quit the race in the final week of the campaign and asked his supporters to back Masters.

Victor received 33,000 votes from those who voted early and piled up another 7,800 from those who voted at the polls.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly pads lead over Blake Masters in Arizona