Blake Masters wasn’t posting the numbers of votes he needed in Election Day ballots as they were counted and released days later by officials in Arizona’s biggest county.

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly has used his first speech in Congress to pay tribute to John McCain, the late Republican senator whose seat Kelly now holds.

(Nicholas Kamm/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Arizona Democrat and former astronaut Mark Kelly was sworn into the Senate on Wednesday, narrowing Republican control of the chamber and underscoring his state's shift from red to blue. Kelly, 56, defeated GOP Sen. Martha McSally in last month's election, making her one of only three incumbents to lose. Kelly's Arizona colleague, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, held the Bible on which he took his oath. In what was one of the country's most expensive Senate races, Kelly raised $89 million. That was second only to the $108 million collected by defeated South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, left, and Arizona Gov. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, Pool)PHOENIX – Arizona officials certified the state's election results on Monday, formalizing Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory over Donald Trump even as the Republican president's attorneys continued to make baseless claims of fraud about the state's vote count. In the final tally, he beat Trump by 10,457 votes, or 0.3 percent of the nearly 3.4 million ballots cast. Nine Republican state lawmakers attended the meeting. A judge in Phoenix has scheduled a Thursday trial in Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward’s lawsuit that seeks to annul Biden’s victory in the state.

Latinos also now account for 24% of eligible voters in Arizona, compared with 19% in 2012, according to Pew Research Center. And how or whether Democrats can keep that enthusiasm in the 2022 midterm elections will require a lot of work. But it’s also incumbent on campaigns to prioritize Latino voters by spending time and money in their communities consistently, not just right before an election. “And that’s something this administration hasn’t done.”To sway Latino voters, she said Democrats need to take the tactics used in Arizona to other states. In Arizona, Democrats presented Trump as the boogeyman, getting voters to show up, while in south Florida, Republicans used socialism to drive voters to Trump, Shope said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks with reporters during a press conference in Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. “We’re waiting — whether I’m going to be the majority leader or not,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday. There already is a Jan. 5 runoff in the state's other Senate race. Securing the Senate majority will be vital for the winner of the presidency. John Hickenlooper defeated GOP Sen. Cory Gardner, and Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly beat Republican incumbent Martha McSally.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Donald Trump’s campaign helped his GOP allies, but that state election officials were still counting ballots. Key Senate races in North Carolina, Alaska and Georgia remained undecided. Democrats contested seats from New England to the Deep South and the Midwest to the Mountain West, reaching deep into GOP strongholds. North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has struggled against Democrat Cal Cunningham, despite the married challenger’s sexting scandal with a public relations strategist. GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at the church where the Rev.

Republican Senate candidate Sen. Mitch McConnell, second from right, and his wife, Elaine Chao, right, look on as aides show him the election results in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)WASHINGTON – Hopes fading for Senate control, Democrats had a disappointing election night as Republicans swatted down an onslaught of challengers and fought to retain their fragile majority. Democrats contested seats from New England to the Deep South and the Midwest to the Mountain West, reaching deep into GOP strongholds. The Democrats' gains were in Colorado and Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly beat GOP incumbent Martha McSally. Republican Cynthia Lummis, the former congresswoman from Wyoming, won the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Mike Enzi.

Republican senators are fighting to save their majority against an onslaught of challengers in states once off limits to Democrats that are now hotbeds of the backlash to President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans are fighting to save their majority, a final election push against the onslaught of challengers in states once off limits to Democrats but now hotbeds of a potential backlash to President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill. With it, a reelected Trump could confirm his nominees and ensure a backstop against legislation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. With the chamber now split, 53-47, three or four seats will determine Senate control, depending on which party wins the White House. Swooping in to fill the gap for Republicans is the Senate Leadership Fund, tapping deep-pocketed donors.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to the media after voting at the Carvel State Office Building, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to the media after voting at the Carvel State Office Building, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. “Even if I win, it’s going to take a lot of hard work to end this pandemic,” Biden said during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Bullhead City is just across the border from Nevada, a state Trump is hoping to flip during Election Day next Tuesday. A Trump Nevada rally last month attracted thousands and led to the airport that hosted it being fined more than $5,500 for violating pandemic crowd restrictions. The weather was far milder than during a Tuesday night Trump rally in Omaha, Nebraska.

Less than two weeks from an Election Day that will determine Senate control, each party is throwing late money at an up-for-grabs Democratic seat in Michigan. The Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber's Democratic leaders, has canceled its remaining $1.2 million in spending against GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, sensing victory. He's getting outspent 3-1,” said GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, whose retirement is making the seat available. Besides Alabama, Michigan is the GOP's best chance at gaining a seat and thwarting Democrats' drive to a Senate majority. “It matters," agreed Poersch of Democrats' Senate Majority PAC, citing a shift in voters' sentiment over the final weeks of the 2016 campaign that helped Trump edge to victory.

Trump finds himself locked in a close race in Iowa with Democrat Joe Biden, and Ernst is as well against Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield. Walking the tightrope between pleasing the Trump base versus attracting other voters is challenging," said John Stineman, a Iowa Republican strategist unaffiliated with the Ernst or Trump campaigns. “You have the road of the radical left,” she said while introducing Vice President Mike Pence at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in August. Trump carried Iowa by 9.4 percentage points in 2016 and Ernst surprised four-term Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley by nearly as much in 2014. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent $11.3 million supporting Ernst, according to Kantar.

This year's campaign, other Republicans worry, may instead resemble 1980 or 2008: a close race until, at the end, it decidedly wasn’t. Reviewing data afterward, campaign aides worried as they started to see Trump’s support begin to slip. Trump’s campaign worries that it is losing support among suburban voters, women and older voters. The Democrat on Monday will make a trip to Ohio for his general election campaign, another state Trump won convincingly in 2016. Trump’s campaign believes the hearings could change the political narrative away from the virus and draw attention to Biden’s refusal to say whether he would expand or “pack” the Supreme Court.

Confirmation hearings are set to begin Monday for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee giving Republicans one last chance to salvage their Senate majority by wresting attention away from the White House and its COVID-19 response and onto the GOP’s longtime goal of fashioning a conservative court. Only two GOP senators balked at quick confirmation. This time, it's much about securing his own legacy reshaping the judiciary into what allies call the “McConnell Court” as giving his majority a landing pad after a tumultuous four years with Trump. Having already bent Senate rules to allow 51-vote threshold to advance Supreme Court nominees, rather than 60 as was tradition, McConnell is now poised to usher a third Trump justice to confirmation. “It’s not going to be remembered as the McConnell Court,” said Stevens.

“The Senate map is looking exceedingly grim,” said one major GOP donor, Dan Eberhart. (It's only three if Biden wins the White House.) As Trump’s fundraising has plateaued in recent months, it has spiked for Republican outside groups that are supporting House and Senate candidates. In 2016, Republican Senate candidates lost in every state Trump lost and won where Trump won. Even in red states, Republicans are starting to make clear they aren't following Trump when it comes to the pandemic.

The Senate is ready to move quickly on a Supreme Court nominee. A confirmation vote so close to a presidential election would be unprecedented, creating significant political risk and uncertainty for both parties. Collins has said the next president should fill the court seat, and she will vote “no” on Trump’s nominee on principle. No matter what happens in this year’s election, Republicans are still expected to be in charge of the Senate during that period. DIDN’T MCCONNELL SAY IN 2016 THAT THE SENATE SHOULDN’T HOLD SUPREME COURT VOTES IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR?

Even before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last week, the president had tried to use likelihood of more Supreme Court vacancies to his political advantage. Supreme Court nominations are never entirely devoid of political considerations, but Trump’s decision has been particularly wrapped up in a charged political moment. Even before Ginsburg’s death, Trump had done the same in 2020, releasing an additional 20 names he would consider for the court, and encouraging Democrat Joe Biden to do the same. “So they don’t want to show the judges because the only ones that he can put in are far-left radicals,” Trump said this week. “If Joe Biden and the Democrats take power, they will pack the Supreme Court with far-left radicals who will unilaterally transform American society far beyond recognition,” Trump said at a rally outside Toledo on Monday.

Several polls ahead of the 2016 presidential election suggested Trump supporters were at least somewhat more likely to say Supreme Court nominations mattered to them. But more recent polling shows the gap between Trump and Biden voters has narrowed – or even reversed. And an August CNN poll found 47% of Biden supporters, but just 32% of Trump supporters, labeled nominations as “extremely” important to them. But with a Supreme Court vacancy, he again is swallowing hard to support Biden in November. But many Trump supporters backed the president’s push to fill the seat now, hypocrisy be damned.

___HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY— Senate Republicans have swiftly fallen in line behind Trump’s rush to fill Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. ___Follow AP’s Supreme Court coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/ruth-bader-ginsburg___10 a.m.Utah Sen. Mitt Romney says he will not oppose a Senate vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. In a statement Tuesday, Romney said he intends to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering Trump’s nominee. We’re a dead heat right now.”McSally is among Republicans who believe the current Senate should vote on Trump’s nominee without delay. ___7:30 a.m.Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham says Republicans have the votes to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick before the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Biden's team is skeptical that the Supreme Court clash will fundamentally change the contours of a race Trump was trailing so close to Election Day. Many Republicans are hopeful the Supreme Court fight will supersede many conservative voters' concerns about Trump's inconsistent leadership and divisive rhetoric. Conservative activist Tim Phillips, president of the group Americans for Prosperity, is doubtful that the court fight will change many votes. When conservative activists gathered in the morning, the Supreme Court was a prime topic of conversation that "strengthened their resolve to get out and work," Phillips said. Lisa Holgash, a 49-year-old Trump supporter, said she would “love it” if Trump were able to appoint another Supreme Court Justice.

FILE - In this May 16, 2011, file photo, former NASA astronaut STS-134 commander Mark Kelly, front, waves a he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building with fellow crew members, including Mike Fincke, for a trip to Launch Pad 39-A, and a planned liftoff on the space shuttle Endeavour at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. A Kelly victory would shrink the GOP's Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicate the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)PHOENIX – If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP’s Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. “If Mark Kelly comes out on top, HE could block President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee from being confirmed,” she wrote. The Supreme Court vacancy could shake up the race and boost McSally’s lagging campaign by keeping those voters in her camp. Republican and Democratic election lawyers agreed that Arizona law is clear: If Kelly wins, he will take office once the results are official. Arizona Supreme Court precedent favors putting elected officials in elected positions as soon as possible, said the Tim LaSota, the former lawyer for the Arizona Republican Party and a McSally supporter.

If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, 2020. A Kelly victory would shrink the GOP's Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicate the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)PHOENIX – If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP's Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. “If Mark Kelly comes out on top, HE could block President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee from being confirmed,” she wrote. The Supreme Court vacancy could shake up the race and boost McSally's lagging campaign by keeping those voters in her camp.

WASHINGTON – Republican senators weighing what to do about the vacancy on the Supreme Court are facing questions about their own past comments amid complaints by Democrats that their views have shifted with changing political reality. A look at what key Republican senators were saying in the past — and what they are saying now — about filling a seat on the Supreme Court during an election year. Her comments to Alaska Public Radio on Friday also occurred before McConnell said the Senate will vote on Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg. SEN. THOM TILLISTillis, a North Carolina Republican who serves on the Judiciary panel, was among several GOP senators in tough reelection battles to join Trump in calling for a swift vote on a Supreme Court nominee. His spokeswoman called a report that Romney would insist on delaying the vote until after Inauguration Day “grossly false.” Romney has never faced a vote on a Supreme Court nominee as a senator.

Standing behind Trump are Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., from left, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. So far, voters are signaling they want to finish the job they started in 2018 by installing Democrats for House majority control. In battleground Arizona, Republican Sen. Martha McSally is trailing Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut. Gonzales said after GOP losses in 2018 there was an expectation that Trump atop the ticket would bring back Republican voters in 2020. But President Trump continues to drive Democratic energy and turnout, he said.

Vice President Mike Pence arrives with his wife Karen Pence to speak on the third day of the Republican National Convention at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON Republicans proceeded with the third night of their national convention, but many Americans particularly those in the path of Hurricane Laura were focused on more immediate concerns. Joe Biden said America is systemically racist, Pence said, criticizing the Democratic challenger as soft on crime. CRISES DRAIN CONVENTION ATTENTIONA political convention is the most scripted, tightly controllable of events, especially when it is mostly virtual and much of it is prerecorded. ANOTHER SPEAKER DOESNT MAKE THE SHOWFor the second consecutive night, Trumps campaign was forced to reshuffle its speaking lineup just hours before the prime-time program began.

This isnt a party convention, its a Trump convention, said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist and former congressional staffer who opposes Trump. If Republicans lose the Senate in November, we should look back at this week as a lost opportunity to introduce the country to more GOP congressional candidates. Scalise made no direct reference to the GOP's faint hopes of regaining the House majority in November's elections. Sean Parnell, a GOP challenger for a Democratic-held seat in western Pennsylvania, didnt specifically ask listeners to award Republicans House control. The inattention to the GOP's congressional efforts might have changed Wednesday when Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, delivered prime-time remarks.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON A small but singularly influential group is a driving force for an agreement on a stalled coronavirus relief bill: Endangered Senate GOP incumbents who need to win this fall if Republicans are going to retain control of the majority. Several of them are refusing to allow the Senate to adjourn until Washington delivers a deal to their desperate constituents. And Sen. Susan Collins is in overdrive, backing help for cash-starved states and local governments and Maine's shipbuilding industry. GOP Senate candidates need a deal, a good deal ... so they can get home and campaign on helping small businesses get up and moving again, said Scott Reed, the chief political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Cornyn helped start a bandwagon of senators who are demanding the Senate stay at work in Washington until a coronavirus bill is passed.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON A small but singularly influential group is a driving force for an agreement on a stalled coronavirus relief bill: Endangered Senate GOP incumbents who need to win this fall if Republicans are going to retain control of the majority. Confronted with a poisonous political environment, vulnerable Senate Republicans are rushing to endorse generous jobless benefits, child care grants, and more than $100 billion to help schools reopen. Several of them are refusing to allow the Senate to adjourn until Washington delivers a deal to their desperate constituents. And Sen. Susan Collins is in overdrive, backing help for cash-starved states and local governments and Maine's shipbuilding industry. GOP Senate candidates need a deal, a good deal ... so they can get home and campaign on helping small businesses get up and moving again, said Scott Reed, the chief political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, July 31, 2020, in Washington. Trump is en route to Florida. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON A shift to mail voting is increasing the chances that Americans will not know the winner of Novembers presidential race on election night. In an election as close as 2016s, a delayed tally in key states could keep news organizations from calling a winner. In some states, the ballots can be accepted several days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked before polls closed. In Arizona in 2018, for example, Republican Martha McSally was narrowly winning the initial tally of in-person votes and mail ballots that had arrived days before Election Day. More than a week later, after election officials were able to tally all the mail votes that arrived on Election Day, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won the senatorial race by more than 2 percentage points.

The Republican measure includes billions for F-35 fighters, Apache helicopters and infantry carriers sought by Washingtons powerful defense lobby. The $8 billion weapons procurement package is part of a $29.4 billion defense portion of the GOP's $1 trillion coronavirus response measure, a White House-backed package released Monday. Providing that money now would help build headroom into the annual defense funding bill that Congress plans to write later this year. The weapons bazaar galled Democrats whose votes will be required to pass the bill amid widespread divisions inside the Senate GOP conference on the measure. It instead delivered informal requests to the powerful lawmakers like Shelby who sit atop the defense funding panel, aides say.

Democrats have at least a punchers chance of grabbing Republican-held seats in four states Trump won by double digits: Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky and South Carolina. They argue that Trump's name on the ballot will give Senate candidates in Republican states a major edge and say they're spending there because Democrats are raising sums that can't be ignored. An expensive battle is brewing over Ernst's Iowa seat, with outside Democratic and GOP groups each planning to spend over $20 million. Kelly has a solid chance of defeating GOP Sen. Martha McSally while Harrison is waging an unlikely drive to oust Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally. Republicans are eyeing Alaska, where GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan's likely opponent is Al Gross, an independent with Democratic support.

President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Saturday, July 11, 2020. What were watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:Days to general election: 113___THE NARRATIVEThese are among the darkest days of President Donald Trump's presidency. Overall, more than 135,000 people in America have died as a result of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election. ___Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

Still another said Republicans worry the GOP brand of cutting taxes could be overshadowed by Trump's drive to defend Confederate monuments. 2 Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota said last week. He said GOP candidates need to do what they need to do to win. Republican Senate candidates will have to defend things President Trump says and does between now and Election Day, said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist and longtime Trump foe. He said he believes independent swing voters abandoning Trump will be willing to back GOP Senate candidates and expressed cautious optimism.

The health care law has been a flashpoint in American politics since its enactment a decade ago. Trying to take away health care in the middle of a pandemic is like throwing out the sandbags during a hurricane, said Jesse Ferguson, a longtime Democratic strategist. The pandemic has made clear for people how important it is to them that their neighbors have health care. And in March, it put $250,000 behind an ad attacking Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana on health care. She said the Democratic health care message would be, Democrats are the party of health care.

The health care law has been a flashpoint in American politics since its enactment a decade ago. Trying to take away health care in the middle of a pandemic is like throwing out the sandbags during a hurricane, said Jesse Ferguson, a longtime Democratic strategist. The pandemic has made clear for people how important it is to them that their neighbors have health care. And in March, it put $250,000 behind an ad attacking Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana on health care. She said the Democratic health care message would be, Democrats are the party of health care.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, facing a competitive North Carolina reelection contest, is looking forward to campaigning" with Trump, Tillis' spokesperson said. GOP Sen. Steve Daines tweeted, Montana cant wait to have you back, Mr. President! after Trump promised to help him battle a strong Democratic challenger. Republican candidates are hostages, said Trump critic Tim Miller, an aide to past GOP presidential contenders including Jeb Bush. Anyone who wants to win in November should be running with the president, said Trump campaign spokesperson Erin Perrine. In the House, Democrats hope to use allegiance to Trump that GOP candidates touted in primaries against them in general elections.