Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake’s primary challenger Kelli Ward on Wednesday called attack ads launched by Mitch McConnell-backed super PAC “ridiculous” and evidence that Senate leadership sees her as a threat.
The Senate Leadership Fund on Tuesday put $10,000 behind a digital ad attacking Ward for her “embarrassing behavior and dangerous ideas.” The ad also included a clip from an interview in which she claimed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was responsible for the rise of the Islamic State.
“I don’t think they’d be throwing out attack ads and spending thousands of dollars to attack me if I were not a threat to their establishment power,” Ward told Fox News.
Ward defended her record as a state senator, touting the number of bills she was able to send to the governor’s desk during her tenure.
“I was a very effective Arizona state senator not because I was extreme in any manner, but because I put forth excellent policy that was good for the people of Arizona, that I was able to get my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to buy into, get to the governor’s desk, and get signed. In fact, I got 19 bills signed into law in 2015 alone,” Ward said.
President Trump appeared to offer an endorsement of Ward in an early-morning tweet last week in which he said he was glad to see she was running against Flake.
“Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He’s toxic!,” Trump tweeted on Aug. 17.
Ward says she did not know the tweet was coming from the president but welcomes that Trump is echoing her sentiments against Arizona’s junior senator.
“It was pretty exciting to be awoken up at 4:00 Arizona time with people telling me that the president had tweeted out positively about me and has brought up many of the things that I’ve brought up against Sen. Flake,” Ward added.
The president made clear Wednesday he is “Not a fan of Jeff Flake,” saying in a tweet that he is “weak on crime & border!”
She also railed against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who she ran unsuccessfully against in a primary last year, for his vote against repealing Obamacare.
“Just think, had I replaced Sen. McCain, I would’ve been the deciding yes vote to get rid of Obamacare, to start that full repeal,” Ward said.
Ward went on to criticize members of her own party she feels are obstructing just as much as Democrats, calling the Senate “an obstructructionary body, both on the left and the right.”
