An immigration activist who’s one of the leaders of the Dream Act movement is joining the staff of U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema as a district outreach director.

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber is holding onto his slight lead in his 2nd Congressional District race against Republican Martha McSally even as all the ballots in GOP-heavy Cochise County have been counted.

Barber had a 709 vote lead as vote-counting resumed in Pima County early Thursday. The race remains too close to call.

A few thousand – or even a few hundred – votes separate the top finishers in three of Arizona’s nine congressional races, with more than 300,000 ballots yet to be reviewed and processed.

An agreement reached Tuesday at least temporarily resolves a dispute over 130 provisional ballots that could prove decisive in Arizona’s last undecided congressional race.

The outcome of southern Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District back-and-forth campaign for the lead between Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Barber and Republican challenger Martha McSally will decide whether Arizona chooses a Democratic or Republican congressional majority.

Today, a full six days after the election, the race had still not been called for either candidate. Barber was leading by 698 votes, or about .25 percentage points.

Nearly a week after Election Day, Kyrsten Sinema’s growing lead translated into an official victory in Arizona’s 9th Congressional District.



With Sinema leading by 5,789 on Monday morning, the Associated Press called the race for the former state legislator. At the time the AP called the race, Sinema held a 2.7-point lead over Republican nominee Vernon Parker.

By all appearances, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick has won the race to represent Arizona’s expansive 1st Congressional District. Her Republican opponent, Jonathan Paton, however, has not conceded, saying that he is waiting to see how the uncounted ballots may affect the outcome.

Arizona’s new hypercompetitive 9th Congressional District lived up its billing, with Democratic nominee Kyrsten Sinema holding a narrow but growing lead over Republican Vernon Parker in a race that was still undecided at the end of election night.

As of Wednesday evening, Sinema, a former legislator from central Phoenix, leads by 2,715 votes.

Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick barely won the race to represent Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, with final counts putting her just above her opponent, Republican Jonathan Paton, who had led in the returns most of election night.

Southern Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District provided one of the biggest surprises of Election Night, and the following days, as the lead for Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Barber and Republican challenger Martha McSally went back and forth with razor thin margins.