New Entrant Joins Volatile Arizona Senate Race

Rep. Martha McSally, a Trump backer, tells GOP to 'grow a pair of ovaries'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 12, 2018 10:56 AM CST
New Entrant Joins Volatile Arizona Senate Race
Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., right, launched her Senate race Friday. In this file photo, she is seen with Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Republican congresswoman Martha McSally called on the national GOP to "grow a pair of ovaries" as she launched her Senate bid Friday, joining the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake by embracing President Trump and his outsider playbook in one of the nation's premier contests. Like few others, the Arizona election is expected to showcase the feud between the Republican Party's establishment and its fiery anti-immigration wing in particular—all in a border state that features one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations, per the AP. McSally, 51, enters a Republican primary field that features a nationally celebrated immigration hardliner, 85-year-old former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The primary also includes former state Sen. Kelli Ward, an outspoken Trump advocate who was an early favorite of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

McSally, a two-term congresswoman already backed by many GOP leaders in Arizona and Washington, announced her candidacy in a fiery video that touched on border security and Sharia law and featured Trump himself. "Like our president, I'm tired of PC politicians and their BS excuses," McSally said. "I'm a fighter pilot and I talk like one." "That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done," she said. "Now, I am running for the Senate to fight the fights that must be won—on national security, economic security, and border security." Later in the day, McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly a combat mission, plans to fly herself across Arizona to announce her candidacy before voters in Tucson, Phoenix, and Prescott.

(More Martha McSally stories.)

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