Sinema continues to lead McSally in Arizona Senate race as vote tally grinds on

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Sinema widens lead over McSally in Arizona senate race

Garrett Tenney reports from Washington.

Krysten Sinema, the Democratic candidate battling Republican Martha McSally for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, had a roughly 29,000-vote lead in the race with roughly 264,000 ballots still left to count, officials said Saturday.

As of 8:55 p.m. ET, Sinema had received 1,048,655 votes statewide, giving her 49.53 percent, while McSally had received 1,018,823 votes, giving her 48.12 percent, according to the Arizona secretary of state.

Sinema's campaign manager, Andrew Piatt, addressed the recent poll numbers in a statement, saying that it "was an incredibly disappointing day" for McSally.

"Her meager gains in the rural counties were totally wiped out by Kyrsten’s continued strong performance in Maricopa County and across the state," Piatt said in the statement. "Here's where things stand: McSally gained 47,837 votes and Kyrsten gained 57,466 votes to grow her lead to 29,832 votes or 1.41 percent. McSally can hope for a miracle tomorrow night but the data show it won't happen."

In Maricopa County, where as of 7 p.m. ET there remained 198,000 outstanding ballots, Sinema had received 630,974 votes, while McSally had received 586,823, the office said.

And in Pima County, as of 6:30 p.m. ET, Sinema received 196,386, while McSally had 146,264, with roughly 36,600 uncounted ballots, according to the officials.

The updated tally comes a day after Republicans and Democrats in the state had reached a settlement regarding “curing” ballots, in which they agreed that all counties in the state could address problems with ballots until this coming Wednesday.

Sinema’s lead has increased since Friday evening, whereas around 8:15 p.m., she was beating McSally by roughly 20,000 votes statewide, the office previously said.

Fox News’ Melissa Chrise contributed to this report.