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Martha McSally is an extraordinary woman. She was a very talented fighter jet pilot and is now a highly respected member of Congress. She is Strong on Crime, the Border and our under siege 2nd Amendment. Loves our Military and our Vets. Has my total and complete Endorsement!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018

Big issues and talkers of the race

McSally has leaned on her experience -- both in terms of her military service and her time serving as a congresswoman for a border district -- during the campaign when talking about topics like immigration, border issues and the military.

She has also spoken regularly about her dedication to veterans, though military ties have been a talking point for both the McSally and Sinema campaigns.

Healthcare, and Obamacare specifically, has become a big part of the Arizona race, with both sides accusing the other of either adopting the wrong approach or voting against pre-existing conditions.

While the issues are central to voters, frequent and damning negative attack ads have also colored the race.

McSally fired off one of the campaign's most memorable ads, where she highlighted how Sinema protested the War in Iraq in a pink tutu while McSally was serving in uniform.

Since then, McSally has pounced on clips of old interviews and speeches where Sinema is seen calling Arizonans “crazy,” likening Arizona to a “meth lab of democracy,” and suggesting, as part of a hypothetical exchange, that she wouldn’t care if Americans joined the Taliban. Another low point in the campaign came when a political action committee that supports McSally sent out a mailer to voters that appeared to suggest that Phoenix could be the target of a nuclear bomb if Sinema were to win.

Sinema has brushed the negative ads aside, saying at their debate that McSally’s claim that it was Sinema who made a treasonous statement was “ridiculous.”

“Martha has chosen to run a campaign... where she's engaging in ridiculous attacks and smearing my campaign,” Sinema said.

Big names on the trail

\"PHOTO:
Ralph Freso/Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump welcomes Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz, to the stage during a rally at the International Air Response facility, Oct. 19, 2018, in Mesa, Ariz.
>

Following the Aug. 28 primary, McSally has had a string of high-profile Republicans flying in to support her bid.

Trump headlined several events in the state, topping it off with a rally. That same day, former President George W. Bush held a closed-door fundraiser for her in Arizona. Less than a week later, Vice President Mike Pence rallied for McSally in Yuma and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., flew in to stump for her the same weekend.

While national names are inevitably helpful to a campaign, it's the voters on the ground who really count, and the polls have been exceptionally close throughout.

The last poll released before the election, from NBC News/Marist on Tuesday Oct. 30, has McSally trailing Sinema by six points, though that is still within the margin of error.

While McSally has been casting herself as a Trump-backing conservative and her opponent a far-left radical, a review of their records paint a picture that is less extreme, at least on Sinema's end.

According to ABC News' partner 538, Sinema has voted with the Trump administration the highest percentage of any Democrat in Arizona, 60.9 percent of the time, including on some legislation which earned liberal ire, such as the effort to roll back parts of the banking bill Dodd-Frank.

That said, the same congressional tracker reports that McSally voted with Trump 97.8 percent of the time.

McSally defended her support of Trump to ABC News in early October.

\"This is a historic opportunity to partner with the president to move opportunities forward and to keep our country safe and secure. That’s what Arizonans want and I’m going to continue to do it in the Senate,\" she said.

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