Kari Lake wins Republican Senate primary in Arizona

Arizona's Kari Lake will now face Democrat Ruben Gallego in the upcoming November election

Former Arizona candidate for governor, Kari Lake, has won the state's Republican Senate nomination, setting the vocal Trump ally up for a potentially tight race against Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Ms Lake, 54, faced unexpectedly stiff competition from Republican sheriff Mark Lamb, with some analysts suggesting that she faces an uphill battle with moderate voters.

Mr Gallego, a US representative and former Marine, ran unopposed in the Democratic party's primary.

The winner of November's race will replace independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who announced in March she would not seek re-election.

Final results from Tuesday's primary election are still being calculated and could take a few days.

In an acceptance speech on Tuesday night, Ms Lake referred to Trump as a "hero", who needs help in Washington DC.

"He can't do this alone," the former TV anchor said. "I'm going to be his back-up."

Ms Lake's primary opponent, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, had sought to position himself as the best candidate to secure Arizona's border with Mexico and win in a general election.

While Ms Lake raised substantially more money in her campaign - $10.3m (£8m) compared to Mr Lamb's $2m - the sheriff secured about 40% of the vote.

Some analysts have pointed to the unexpectedly close race as a sign that Ms Lake may have alienated Republican voters with her unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud tipping the 2020 election.

"Lake's underwhelming numbers are a bad sign for her general election," Republican consultant Tyler Montague was quoted as saying in the Arizona Republic newspaper.

In her victory speech, Ms Lake called on Republicans from "all walks of life" to unite behind her in November's election, which she referred to as a "battle between good and evil" against "people who want to destroy this country".

Once Ms Lake's victory became clear, Arizona's Democratic Senatorial Campaign launched an ad in which they referred to her as a "power-hungry liar".

The ad includes clips of Ms Lake saying that abortion pills should not be legal.

“It’s official – my opponent is Kari Lake," Mr Gallego tweeted. "Arizona, the choice is clear: Kari wants to ban abortion. I will always protect abortion rights.”

The race for Arizona's Senate seat will be closely watched nationally, with Democrats needing to keep control of it in order to maintain a narrow 51 to 49 majority in the 100-member chamber.