2012 United States Senate election in Arizona
The 2012 United States Senate election in Arizona was held November 6, 2012, alongside a presidential election, other elections to the United States Senate in other states, as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, the Senate Minority Whip, decided to retire instead of running for reelection to a fourth term. Republican U.S. Representative Jeff Flake won the open seat. Republican primary. The filing deadline for Republican candidates was June 1, 2012, and the primary election took place  on August 28, 2012. Democratic primary. Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona was the only candidate for the Democratic nomination, receiving all 289,881 votes cast in the primary election. General election. Debates. There were three debates before the election. The first was in Phoenix on October 10, 2012, the second in Tucson on October 15 and the last was in Yuma on October 25. Results. Preliminary results showed Flake leading 49.7–45.7%, but 439,961 early votes had yet to be counted.