AZ-SEN: GOP faces brutal Arizona primary fight

Republicans hoping to hang on to the Arizona Senate seat face an increasingly tumultuous primary environment, with firebrand former sheriff Joe Arpaio entering the race from the right and Rep. Martha McSally trying to win over President Trump’s supporters without alienating more moderate general election voters.

The Tuesday announcement from Arpaio, whose criminal contempt conviction Trump pardoned last year, came just days before McSally joined the primary. While Arpaio made his name as an immigration hardliner and promoter of the discredited conspiracy theory that former President Obama wasn’t born in the United States, McSally is the party establishment pick meant to appeal in the general election.

But McSally doesn’t have a clear path in the late August primary for the seat now held by Sen. Jeff Flake (R), who announced his retirement in the face of poor poll numbers.

State Sen. Kelli Ward (R) was originally the only candidate running from the right, but new polling shows Arpaio close to McSally while siphoning off Ward’s conservative supporters.

Arpaio’s entry changes the calculus of a race that could become one of the more brutal primaries in the country.

“With the entrance of Joe Arpaio and now the formal announcement of McSally, this race just got very interesting — and not in a good way — for Kelli Ward,” former state GOP chairman Robert Graham told The Hill.



http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/368828-gop-faces-brutal-arizona-primary-fight