An Arizona lawmaker said on Tuesday she will challenge U.S. Senator John McCain in the 2016 Republican primary, vowing to better represent conservative values.
Kelli Ward, a two-time state legislator, said it is time to replace the state’s five-term senior senator with “a fresh, new voice” to serve residents in the burgeoning southwestern U.S. state.
“I’m running for the U.S. Senate to give you a real choice!” said Ward on her website. “Arizonans deserve a Senator who will fight for their values, and not just go along with the Beltway crowd.”
The 46-year-old emergency room physician said in a video that McCain has “too often disappointed conservatives” on issues such as Obamacare, illegal immigration and federal spending.
Ward is a long shot but Matt Salmon, who has more name recognition and more financial backing, may enter the race too.
I am an Arizona native who had no problem supporting McCain at the beginning of his Senate career when I still lived there. That, however, was before he became enamored of the occasional pat on the back from the New York Times. McCain is now the glaring epitome of everything that is wrong with Washington, especially the Senate. He continually disappoints constituents for five years, then spends his election year being the man that they want. That, coupled with the favors doled out during the aforementioned five years, provide him just enough to weather primary challenges.
Maverick will be eighty when the next election rolls around, and it will be almost thirty years since his first election to the Senate. He no longer cares about the people in Arizona. Like all members of the Senate who have been there too long, he’s only worried about the perks of being a United States Senator.
Unless the 17th Amendment is repealed, voters are going to have to get longer attention spans when senators are up for reelection.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member