Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema's lead over Republican Rep. Martha McSally in Arizona's Senate race grew Sunday as some GOP figures continued to distance themselves from President Donald Trump's claims of misconduct.
Sinema led by 30,310 votes as of 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, according to the Arizona secretary of state's office. That puts her ahead by 1.4 percentage points with more than 2.1 million ballots counted.
On Saturday, Sinema campaign manager Andrew Piatt continued to express a belief that there are more Democratic ballots left to be counted than Republican ballots.
"McSally can hope for a miracle tomorrow night but the data show it won't happen," he said in a statement.
As votes continue being counted, Republicans are divided over how to handle the close election.
Arizona GOP elected officials, including McSally's camp, have defended the lengthy process and said the state must make sure every ballot is counted.
President Donald Trump and the national and state Republican parties, meanwhile, have cast doubt on the election's legitimacy -- even though there are no allegations or evidence to support those claims.
In a shift on Sunday, however, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee backed away from his own group's fear-mongering about the race's outcome.
Arizona's process of counting votes moves slowly because about 75% of the state's electorate votes by mail. Every one of those ballots goes through a verification process that involves matching voters' signatures on their ballots' envelopes with their voter registration forms.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/11/politics/arizona-senate-sinema-mcsally-update/index.html?no-st=1542003724