What Kelli Ward Wants From CPAC

“I’ve been coming every year for quite a bit of time,” Ward told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “It’s kind of a tradition to come in March, come to D.C. and meet with the conservative activist community.”

Ward’s trip comes at an opportune time. As the intriguing Arizona race begins to enter the national spotlight, she has struggled to position herself as the serious, policy-oriented conservative in the race. Her path to victory seemed straightforward against Flake, whose move toward the center on immigration and refusal to make nice with President Trump hurt him badly among his state’s Republican base. But Flake’s decision not to seek re-election opened the way for a stronger mainstream challenger: McSally, who will enjoy the support of Senate GOP leadership. So far, Ward hasn’t changed her playbook: She calls McSally a “bland copy” of Flake, pointing out her tepid support for the president (McSally has declined to tell reporters who she voted for in 2016) and her inconsistent voting record on immigration policy. But it remains to be seen whether the association will stick.

“I think it’s very important for us to give the Republican electorate someone that inspires them, that presents bold, fresh ideas,” Ward said. We’ve got to give somebody that energizes the base, if we want to win. And I definitely am the person that energizes the base.”

Unfortunately for Ward, she’s not the only one making that play: “Energizing the base” has for years been the calling card of controversial retired lawman Joe Arpaio, who entered the race in January. Arpaio’s tough-on-crime showboating as the sheriff of Maricopa County made him a right-wing icon in the early 2000s, a status he has maintained since through a series of publicity stunts, most notably through his repeated questioning of the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Arpaio, who is 85 years old and has no policy background, might seem a sideshow candidate if not for his closeness to President Trump, who issued him a presidential pardon last August after Arpaio was found guilty of defying a court order to stop profiling Latinos in his pursuit of immigration enforcement.

Arpaio’s presence in the race speaks to the ability of today’s GOP to normalize the extreme. In fact, Ward herself has gotten something of a reputation for appealing to fringe elements : Attack ads last year dubbed her “Chemtrail Kelli” for holding a hearing during her tenure as a state senator to address constituent concerns that condensation clouds left by airplanes contain secret chemicals to control the U.S. population. (Several independent fact-checkers said the ads were unfair, as Ward has said repeatedly she does not believe this conspiracy theory herself.) And during her previous Senate run against John McCain in 2016, Ward went on the radio show InfoWars founder Alex Jones, where the two traded light banter about the possibility that McCain might try to have her killed.

Ward maintains that this was simply an attempt to get her message to an untapped audience: “I think that there’s an audience of people out there that do listen to InfoWars, and should they be left in the dark about options that are out there?”

“I mean, Donald Trump went on InfoWars too, and so have many other people.”

And now Arpaio and Ward are going after the same base of Trump supporters. It would be challenging for her to attack Arpaio as an unserious celebrity candidate—given all the same criticisms leveled against Arpaio were also the arguments leveled against Trump. (In our interview, Ward said only that Arpaio “doesn’t have the policy chops that I certainly do.”)

Besides, trying to censor frivolous or unhelpful voices on the right has never been Ward’s style. Asked her opinion about the presence at CPAC of French politician Marion le Pen, niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen, Ward deferred.

“I think they can invite whoever they want to come in, and hopefully people enjoy hearing them,” Ward said. “I’m hoping to hear from a lot of people with a lot of different perspectives along the conservative spectrum.”

At any rate, it leaves Ward only one real avenue to oppose Arpaio, and it’s the avenue she’s trying to take, that her policy record and legislative experience would make her not only a conservative legislator, but an effective one. She says she would welcome Trump’s endorsement, but isn’t counting on it to win, and has begun to lean harder into other endorsements, like that of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

“Who wouldn’t want the endorsement of the president?” she said. “I think that would be wonderful, but I’m not actively seeking that. The last time I talked to the president, he was very complimentary. He was extremely nice and he was very, very knowledgeable about what’s going on in Arizona.”

That conversation, she said, was in December—right before Arpaio entered the race.

Last month, Ward proposed that the three candidates undertake a series of six policy debates; neither of her opponents have yet taken her up on the offer. It’s not hard to see why: A debate format would give Ward the perfect opportunity to jab McSally about her early Trump reticence and to upstage Arpaio without having to take actual potshots at a fan favorite.

“We have an opportunity to have somebody who supports the America First agenda, who understands a wide range of policy issues that are on the table, not a one-issue candidate by any means whatsoever,” Ward said. “And we really can change Washington D.C. for the better, and for the better of Arizona.”