The Arizona senate race may be the year's wildest
There’s a slew of candidates, and it’s anybody’s guess who will win
VINCENT PENA, SALON YOUNG AMERICANS
02.10.2018•6:00 AM
This feature is part of Salon’s Young Americans initiative, showcasing emerging journalists reporting from America’s red states. Read more Young Americans stories
Not even six months ago, Kelli Ward looked poised to take on Jeff Flake in the 2018 election for his senate seat. Flake, by this point a well-known critic of President Donald Trump, would have had a tough battle ahead of him. He was losing favor with the White House, while Ward seemed to making an impression not only on the president but on Arizona voters, who only two years ago overwhelmingly voted for John McCain over Ward by an 11-point margin.
Ward was one of several senate hopefuls who were endorsed by the former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and were part of the nationwide Make America Great Again efforts across the country, which included other fringe Republicans like Roy Moore and Michael Grimm. Despite having Bannon’s endorsement, Trump had yet to give her an official endorsement, offering only a tweet in support of Ward last fall.
But then Flake suddenly announced he would retire after his current term, citing, among other reasons, that he didn’t think he could win a re-election given the trajectory the GOP was taking after Trump’s election. Flake’s resignation paved the way for Ward to be the Republican front-runner to take over his seat, but it also opened the door for plenty of other would-be Senate hopefuls to join the race.
Shortly thereafter, Alabama senate hopeful Moore was accused of sexual assault against several teenage girls while he was in his thirties in the 1970s and 1980s. He would end up becoming the first Alabama Republican to lose to a Democrat since 1997 after Doug Jones defeated him in the December special election. The loss was a defeat not only for Republicans, but it was another big blow for Bannon and Ward.
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