By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press
PHOENIX – Arizona Republicans voted Saturday to condemn Cindy McCain and two prominent GOP officials who found themselves at odds with former President Donald Trump.
The censorship of nervous John McCain’s widow, former senator Jeff Flake and Governor Doug Ducey is merely symbolic. But they show that the party’s foot soldiers are intent on enforcing loyalty to Trump, even in the aftermath of an election that sent Arizona down from its strong Republican roots.
Party activists also re-elected controversial president Kelli Ward, who was one of Trump’s most staunch supporters and one of the most productive promoters of his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
The militant focus of the Arizona GOP has delighted Trump’s strongest supporters and concerned Republican insiders who have watched the party lose ground in the suburbs as the influence of its traditional conservative institution has faded in Trump’s favor. A growing electorate of young Latinos and newcomers bringing their more liberal politics away from home has further disadvantaged the IDP.
“It’s a time to vote for Republicans. Are we going to be the Conservative Party? Said Kirk Adams, a former speaker and chief of staff of Ducey. “Or is it a party … that is loyal to a single person?”
It is a matter of Republican identity that party officials and activists across the country are facing after Trump’s 2020 loss, and especially after a crowd of his supporters besieged the US Capitol on January 6.
Nowhere is the question sharper than Arizona, where the unconditional loyalty of the state GOP to Trump stands out even in a party that has been rebuilt everywhere in the image of the former president.
Ward ruthlessly – but unsuccessfully – sued to reverse the election results. The party used its social media accounts to encourage followers to fight and perhaps even to die in support of Trump’s false claims of victory. Two of the state’s four Republican congressmen are accused of playing a role in organizing the January 6 protest, which turned violent.
After dominating Arizona politics for decades, Republicans find themselves on their heels in the highest offices of the state. President Joe Biden won here and became only the second Democrat in more than five decades to win the state. Consecutive victories in 2018 and 2020 gave the Democrats control of both U.S. Senate seats for the first time in nearly 70 years.
Ward, a doctor and former lawmaker who lost two Republican Senate primary elections, defeated three challengers to win a second term.
In a brief interview, Ward acknowledged ‘top-down disappointment’ but said she and many other Republicans still question the results the victories show for Biden and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. Judges have rejected eight lawsuits that challenge Arizona’s election results.
Ward points to the success of GOP during the vote and notes that Republicans defied expectations in local racing.
Ward said she is a “Trump Republican” who will always “put America first, who believes in faith, family and freedom.” The way forward for the GOP, according to Trump, keeps the 74 million voters busy.
“Yes, I will be radical about things, because those are the things that keep this country great,” Ward said. “The people who complain are the people who put us in this place where we are in Arizona, people who are old, and allow the Democrats to walk all over them.”
The censorship is aimed at some of the top Republicans in Arizona,
Cindy McCain endorses Biden and becomes a powerful surrogate for the Democrat after years of attacks by Trump on her husband.
“Perhaps (Ward) should be reminded that my husband has never lost an election in Arizona since his first victory in 1982,” McCain said in a statement before the vote.
Flake was one of the few Congolese Republicans to be openly critical of Trump for failing to live up to conservative values. He did not want to be re-elected in 2018 and endorsed Biden in last year’s election.
“If it’s necessary to approve of the president’s behavior to stay in the party’s favor, it’s fine with me that I’m on the right track,” Flake wrote on Twitter before the vote.
Ducey is being targeted for its restrictions on individuals and businesses to limit the spread of COVID-19. Although not mentioned in the proposed censorship, he had a sincere break with the president when he signed the certification of Biden’s victory.
“These decisions have no conclusion, and the people behind them have lost the moral authority they once had,” said Sara Mueller, Ducey’s political director.
Many traditional conservatives are worried that the censorship and Ward’s belligerent style will eliminate the swing voters and ticket splitters that Democrats hand over their recent victories. But according to them, the party’s decisions will only reflect the views of about 1,500 dedicated activists.
John McCain was censored by the state GOP in 2014 and comfortably won a Republican primary over Ward and a general election. The self-described maverick, best known for his willingness to run his party, had strained relations with the state party for much of his career, but was consistently re-elected by wide margins.
___
Associated Press author Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed.