Arizona Republicans voted to censure Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain after the trio of Republicans either did not support former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the election results or endorsed President Biden before the election.
Flake and McCain both endorsed Biden during the campaign, a controversial move in the battleground state that Trump eventually lost by a narrow margin. It was the first time a Democrat carried the state since former President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Ducey was also censured Saturday for imposing COVID-19 restrictions in the state, with rules that GOP lawmakers argued violated Arizona’s constitution while accusing the governor of wielding “dictatorial powers.”
“What we’re getting is a purity test, and that purity test is simple: are you loyal to Donald Trump no matter what? If you’re not, we’ll censure you,” said Kirk Adams, a former state representative and adviser to Ducey.
“Foolish. It’s foolish,” Glenn Hamer, former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, said in reaction to the move to censure the trio. “Parties that want to be successful bring people together and expand the number of people who are attracted to the party. What’s going on with the leadership at the AZ GOP is the exact opposite. It’s self-destructive.”
McCain, the wife of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, reacted to the news by calling it a “badge of honor” to be censured by the state’s Republican Party.
“It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well … and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP,” McCain said on Twitter. “I’ll wear this as a badge of honor.”
John McCain was censured by the state’s GOP in 2014 for having what the party described as a liberal record in the Senate.
The trio of Republicans was recently photographed together at Biden’s inauguration, with Flake tweeting the photo while saying he was in “good company.”
Good company pic.twitter.com/1pdgVGE5Ps
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) January 24, 2021
Adams accused the state’s GOP of “leaving their conservative principals behind,” warning that the move could spell trouble for the party in a state that has become increasingly moderate in recent years.
“A lot of Republicans inside the official AZ GOP apparatus have left their conservative principals behind. They’re now loyal to a single man or personality versus a platform of ideas,” Adams said. “Perhaps this fever will break. But if it doesn’t, it spells bad news for Republicans seeking office in this state.”
