McConnell allies jump into critical Senate primary
By JAMES ARKIN 06/15/2018 05:00 AM EDT
Allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dove into the middle of a major Senate race Thursday, airing ads to help remake Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) as a border hawk ahead of her August primary with two prominent immigration hard liners.
The ads, from the McConnell-aligned nonprofit One Nation, don’t explicitly reference the Senate race. But they quote McSally saying, “We’ve got to build the wall,” just as the two-term Republican has been tacking to the right on immigration. She recently pulled her support from legislation that would have offered a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally, instead backing a more conservative immigration bill, and McSally’s office also recently took down a video from last year that featured her defending DACA, the Obama-era program that protected young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The TV ad marks the first move by a national group in Arizona’s Senate race, emphasizing the high stakes there as Republicans defend their 51-49 Senate majority. Democrats are confident in Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s chances to flip retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat. McConnell has made clear his preference for McSally in the primary, and national Republicans fear the race will be unwinnable if former state legislator Kelli Ward or former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio win the nomination in late August.
Still, McConnell’s involvement comes with its own risks. The majority leader is a controversial figure among GOP primary voters, and that unpopularity was weaponized against McConnell’s chosen candidate in Alabama’s special election last year, when pro-McConnell groups spent heavily to back former Sen. Luther Strange before he lost his primary. In Arizona, Ward has already attacked the Republican establishment for interfering in the race.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/mcconnell-allies-martha-mcsally-senate-primary-arizona-648029
