The Associated Press named Eli Crane, Trump-backed Republican congressional candidate, as the victor in the race to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, defeating three-term Democrat representative Tom O’Halleran.
Before entering into the political scene, O’Halleran joined the Chicago Police Department as one of the youngest detectives in the city’s history. O’Halleran initially served as a Republican congressman in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Arizona State Senate between 2006 and 2009, before abandoning the party in 2014 and obtaining his current position as a Democrat, a seat he has held since 2016.
The Democrat served three terms representing Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, but after redistricting throughout the state, sought re-election in the newly redrawn and more competitive 2nd Congressional District, against Trump-backed Republican challenger Crane.
Crane, a retired Navy SEAL and small business owner in Tuscon, is the pro-life and pro-second amendment Republican candidate that ran in O’Halleran’s opposition. The GOP nominee is “unafraid to take a stand against cancel culture and the radical left,” as claimed on his campaign site.
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In his bid for Congress, Crane was endorsed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and former President Donald Trump.
Border security was at the forefront of the dueling candidate’s campaigns. “It’s a real problem. If you talk to anybody down on the border, any of our border patrol agents, law enforcement officers, it’s an invasion down there. They need help, and they need this administration to take it seriously,” Crane told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in July.
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Despite his Democratic standing, O’Halleran openly disagreed with President Joe Biden’s handling of the southern border and highlighted the lack of communication from the Biden administration. “The President has to have a plan. We don’t want chaos at the border,” O’Halleran mentioned while joining “America’s Newsroom” in April.
“We have to have communication from the administration to in order to know what their ideas and concepts are. Not only do we need to know it, the American people need to know it. The people that are going to be immediately effected in Arizona and other border states.”
In the months leading up to the election, the Cook Report labeled the congressional race as “Lean Republican,” giving Crane an edge over the Democrat incumbent.
