campaign manager Anthony Barry pleaded guilty to the theft of $115,000 campaign funds from the McSally campaign. 2020 special The death of longtime U.S. senator John McCain on August 25, 2018 triggered, in accordance with the 17th amendment, a special election scheduled for November 2020. McSally ran to complete the term to which she had been appointed by Governor Ducey, defeating skincare executive Daniel McCarthy in the Republican primary. In the general election, she faced former astronaut Mark Kelly, who ran uncontested in the Democratic primary. Kelly defeated McSally with 51.2% of the vote. She initially refused to concede the election even though results showed that the margin was too large to overcome with remaining ballots. Appointment After Senator McCain died and his appointed successor, Senator Jon Kyl, resigned, Arizona's other Senate seat was to become vacant at the beginning of 2019. On December 18, 2018, Governor Ducey announced that he was appointing McSally to the seat. Ducey stated that McSally would be the junior senator, to "respect the will of the voters," and that Sinema would be sworn in before McSally. Despite Ducey's comments, McSally was ultimately sworn in before Sinema. McSally's appointment proved controversial. McCain's daughter Meghan criticized the appointment, claiming that McSally "didn't earn" her seat, and the conservative Washington Times calling the appointment "anti-democratic." A lawsuit was filed on behalf of Arizona voters claiming the appointment violated the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The suit was eventually dismissed and the appointment allowed to stand. McSally and Sinema, who were sworn in on the same day, were the first two women to serve as U.S. senators from Arizona. This made Arizona one of six states with two women serving as its senators (the others are California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington). Only once before have two female senators representing the same state at the same time been of different parties (in New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017). McSally was the first senator ever appointed to serve alongside someone to whom she initially lost an election, and the first to serve alongside a colleague she lost to in the election immediately preceding the inauguration. McSally and Sinema were the second pair of senators to serve together after having campaigned against each other the year before; the first such instance occurred in 1996–97 in Oregon, when Democrat Ron Wyden defeated Republican Gordon H. Smith in a special