U.S. Rep. Martha McSally has announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Wochit
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, a two-term Republican from Tucson and former Air Force combat pilot, on Friday officially entered an already volatile race for Arizona's open U.S. Senate seat, setting the GOP field for the drive to the Aug. 28 primary.
In a video posted to YouTube Friday morning, McSally plays up her Air Force background, including being the first female pilot to fight in combat, and presents herself as a member of Congress who gets things done in an age of gridlock.Â
She also signals her intent to align herself with President Donald Trump — in tone and policy — whose backing could be crucial in the Republican primary.
"Like our president, I'm tired of PC politicians and their BS excuses," she says on the video. "I'm a fighter pilot and I talk like one. That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done. Now I'm running for the Senate to fight the fights that must be won."
McSally's Senate bid had been widely anticipated from almost the moment on Oct. 24 that incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., announced he would retire rather than face re-election this year.Â
But the race's dynamics took a turn earlier this week with former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's announcement that he also is seeking the Republican nomination.
The three-way primary race pits McSally, the favorite of the traditional GOP establishment, against Arpaio of Fountain Hills and Kelli Ward, a former state senator from Lake Havasu City, both of whom will be battling to win the party's conservative base.
With control of the narrowly divided Senate at stake, the competition to replace Flake could become one of the year's national marquee races.
McSally, 51, will kick off campaigning with an appearance Friday morning at an air hangar in her hometown of Tucson, followed by stops at a hangar in Phoenix and at the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott. The late former five-term U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., and six-term senior U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., both launched campaigns from the county's historic courthouse steps.
READ MORE:Â McSally's Senate ambitions began last summer
Like McCain and Flake in recent campaigns, McSally likely will have to run to the right in the primary and, if she prevails, pivot toward the political center for what most observers expect would be a tough general-election campaign against U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., the well-funded front-runner in the Democratic Senate primary.
Since Flake's surprise retirement announcement, McSally has sought to raise her profile by piling up appearances on Fox News and has posted on social media pictures of herself with Trump, whom she avoided discussing throughout the 2016 elections and for months more after he entered the White House.
Earlier this week, she was seated near Trump at his hourlong public discussion with congressional Democrats and Republicans of immigration and border-security issues. On Wednesday, she helped introduce a hard-line border-security and immigration bill that the White House said "would accomplish the president’s core priorities for the American people."
McSally's announcement video included a clip of Trump praising his "friend" McSally as "the real deal" and "tough."
"After taking on terrorists in combat, the liberals in the Senate won't scare me one bit," McSally said in her video.
The Republican primary has the potential to be a proxy war between the national GOP factions represented by Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and former White House strategist Steve Bannon.
Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race to replace Flake. But despite McSally and Ward's attempts to curry his favor, Arpaio is widely seen as the likeliest recipient of such a gesture were Trump to inject himself in the race. Arpaio was an early, high-profile backer of Trump's insurgent presidential campaign, and Trump repaid Arpaio's loyalty in 2017 by pardoning him of a federal conviction of criminal contempt of court in connection with a racial-profiling case.
McSally is aligned with McConnell, who, even before she publicly announced her intentions, said he considers McSally to be one of his top recruits of this election cycle. Fox Business reported this week that McSally had received assurances that a political action committee aligned with Republican leaders in the Senate will provide financial support to her campaign.
Ward had been endorsed by Bannon, who spoke on her behalf at an October campaign event in Scottsdale. However, since Trump and Bannon's major public falling out, Ward has distanced herself from Bannon.
"Like in nearly every other state facing a Senate election this cycle, the Arizona Republican primary will be nasty, expensive and very long," David Bergstein, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman said Friday in a written statement. "It will drain the GOP’s resources, demoralize their voters, and expose the flaws in each of their candidates."
McSally's decision to run for the Senate also presents her party with another dilemma. She is abandoning her moderate 2nd Congressional District in southern Arizona and Republicans now must field another candidate there. It's a competitive House seat that the GOP may find difficult to hold in this year's midterm elections, when Democrats are expected to make gains.
McSally was elected to the House in 2014, defeating incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., in a close race. She was re-elected in 2016.
Should McSally win in November, she would become the first U.S. senator from Pima County since U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., who served three terms from 1977 to 1995.
A general-election victory by McSally, Ward or Sinema would send Arizona's first woman U.S. senator to Washington.
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