Rep. Martha McSally has won the Republican nomination for the US senate seat in Arizona. She defeated two other pro-Trump conservatives, Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio, in what was a brutal primary.
Martha McSally won 14 of 15 counties in the GOP senate primary, only losing Yuma County to Joe Arpaio.
McSally, a former Air Force pilot who represents a Tucson swing district won by Hillary Clinton, once was the the easy choice for the John McCain faction of the GOP. Like McCain, she criticized Trump during the presidential election, and has refused to say whether she voted for him. With her military credentials you would think she would be highlighting what she has in common with McCain, but that is not the case. McSally has since tacked hard right, boasting of her access to President Trump and pulling her support from legislation that would grant citizenship to people brought into the country illegally as children.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema has won the Democratic nomination for the same seat. She is running ahead of McSally in polls, although Arizona has not sent a Democrat to the senate in two decades.
Sinema is the second most moderate Democrat in the House, and made health care central to her messaging. In one of Sinema’s ads, she recounts her family’s struggle with health care costs. “We were just kids when my dad lost his job. We lost our car, we lost our home, and we lost our health insurance. I know what it’s like for a family to struggle to make ends meet,” Sinema says in the spot. “Health care needs to be more affordable.
If a blue wave is real, it could easily crash into Arizona and take Sinema into office with it.
The winner will take the place of Sen. Jeff Flake, a Trump critic who did not seek reelection.
Incumbent GOP Gov. Doug Ducey will face Democrat David Garcia in November.