While we thank former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his long career in public service, he must drop out of Arizona’s U.S. Senate primary race in order for the survival of conservatism in The Grand Canyon State.
Looking at the most recent polls concerning the Arizona U.S. Senate Primary race, something is becoming quite ominous for conservatism.
In the Republican primary, to be held August 28th, Representative Martha McSally (AZ – 2nd) is leading her two main rivals, Dr. Kelli Ward, whom we have long endorsed, and former sheriff of Maricopa County Joe Arpaio. In the latest poll from Emerson, McSally garners 32% of the vote, with Ward and Arpaio battling for 2nd place with 19% and 18% respectively. Other polls throughout the election season have shown similar results though a recent NBC News/Marist poll has McSally leading Ward by just two points.
Regardless, Sheriff Arpaio cannot get elected statewide and will not only help defeat the true conservative in this race – Dr. Ward, but will help the Democrats in the general election by handing McSally a victory in the primary.
At this point, Arpaio is playing the spoiler in this crucial senate race and the survival of conservatism is at stake. If he stays in, the choice for the voters in the fall will either be a milquetoast Republican moderate Rep. Martha McSally or Representative Kyrsten Sinema who would be the first Democratic senator from Arizona in over 23 years if elected. We cannot let this happen.
Thus, Conservative First, in our never ending mission to elect true constitutional conservatives into Congress, is calling on Joe Arpaio to drop out of the primary race and help Dr. Ward go one-on-one with Rep. McSally in order to give conservatism the best chance to defeat establishment liberalism that McSally would represent in the United States Senate.
The retiring Senator Jeff Flake is and has been a total disaster for conservatism since he became a U.S. senator in 2013. His voting record reflects it. Also, Sen. Flake has chastised his own party for either being too conservative or working with President Trump on implementing a conservative agenda. We cannot replace Sen. Flake with another liberal Republican who will step into the junior senator’s shoes and just be another rubber stamp for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s weak agenda.
Dr. Kelli Ward must be the candidate to take on the Democrats in the fall and while we thank Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his long public service career, we call on him to drop out of the Arizona U.S. Senate race in order for conservatism to survive in The Grand Canyon State.
