At first glance, Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision to appoint recently failed senatorial candidate Martha McSally to outgoing Sen. John Kyl’s seat feels like a participation trophy. McSally conceded to Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema a little more than a month ago after her narrow loss, yet she’s going to join the Senate at roughly the same time anyway.
But from a strategic perspective, both for stability and fairness’ sakes, McSally was always the best option.
For one thing, McSally beat out a primary field of loons like Joe Arpaio, a birther once convicted of criminal contempt of court, and Kelli Ward, who went on tour with Pizzagate conspiracy theorists and received the favor of Steve Bannon and Rep. Steve King, R-Crazytown. Ducey wanted to appoint another Republican to fill and hold the McCain seat, and no Republican in the state had a comparable electoral mandate to take a vacant Senate seat.
Furthermore, McSally lost with grace, refusing to engage in the antics that failed candidates like Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams did after losing by a thin but definitive margin. She’s a conservative but not a sycophant, and despite the hostility of the Senate election prior to the election, both Sinema and McSally’s behavior since then has pointed to the potential that they can remain civil.
If any Arizonans are really outraged that the election loser got a Senate seat anyway, they don’t have much to be outraged about in practice. McSally will essentially have to hop straight back onto the campaign trail, as she’ll have to defend the seat in just two years. If McSally legislates as a senator as she did as a congresswoman, she’ll likely stave off serious primary competitors. Furthermore, Arizona Democrats can be thankful that Ducey chose an establishment conservative and not a race-baiting populist. And of course, there’s the added bonus that McSally is both a woman representing a party that desperately requires more female outreach as well as a former combat veteran who served the country for over two decades in the Air Force.
No single selection by Ducey could appease Arizona’s entire electorate. McSally was the safe choice and probably the wise one, even if doesn’t immediately feel that way.
Just consider the alternate universe in which Joe Arpaio enters the Senate.
