Free Republic

Failed U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward, a conservative firebrand, will lead the Arizona Republican Party through the 2020 election. In a contentious three-way race for AZGOP chair, Ward came out on top Saturday, defeating incumbent chairman Jonathan Lines. Meanwhile, Arizona Democrats opted to retain their party chairwoman, Felecia Rotellini to another two-year term. Republican losses in the 2018 election were a common refrain throughout the AZGOP state committee meeting Saturday at Phoenix’s Church for the Nations. Prior to the election, Republicans held all statewide elected offices, a majority of the congressional seats and majorities in both chambers of the Legislature....

President Trump's Criminal Justice Reform bill has passed the US Senate..... The Trump Administration's ban on bump stocks for firearms is now official. The devices must be turned in or destroyed by March 21st...... What about the threat of a partial government shutdown over border wall funding?...... The Prime Minister of Belgium submitted his resignation Tuesday night after the largest party in his government left over the government's signing of the United Nations compact on international migration..... The US is planning to sell Patriot missiles to Turkey.... Turkey continues to hype an upcoming military operation in Kurdish areas east of...

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has appointed former Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally to fill late Senator John McCain's seat."All her life, Martha has put service first — leading in the toughest of fights and at the toughest of times,” Ducey released in a statement Tuesday morning. “She served 26 years in the military; deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan; was the first woman to fly in combat and command a fighter squadron in combat; and she’s represented Southern Arizona in Congress for the past four years. With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday appointed Rep. Martha McSally to fill the Senate vacancy originally created with the death of Republican Sen. John McCain. Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican, was appointed to succeed McCain on an interim basis. McSally, a Republican who lost a bid for Senate in November, received the appointment to McCain's seat on a permanent basis, to take effect after Kyl departs the Senate on Dec. 31. McSally will immediately have to stand for election in a 2020 special election to determine who serves out the final two years of the six-year term McCain won in...

Martha McSally has reportedly been chosen to fill the Senate seat once filled by late Senator John McCain. Governor Doug Ducey appointed her to the position Tuesday morning. He said in a tweet: "All her life, (McSally) has put service first — leading in the toughest of fights. With her experience and record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to fight for #Arizona in the U.S. Senate."

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed fellow Republican Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate, he announced Tuesday, picking a favorite of GOP leaders to fill the seat John McCain held for decades. McSally, who lost a close race for Arizona’s other Senate seat this year, will succeed Sen. Jon Kyl (R). Kyl will step down at the end of the year following a brief time in McCain’s seat after McCain’s death in August. “With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to step up and fight for Arizona’s interests in the U.S. Senate. I thank her...

Meghan McCain’s husband said that Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., would be an “unwise choice” for Arizona senator.

Well, this was expected. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is out at the end of the month. Kyl served previously in the Senate before retiring after the 2012 elections. He left public life, but agreed to fill in temporarily for the late Sen. John McCain. Gov. Doug Ducey, who handily won re-election this year, now has to appoint a replacement. Could it be Martha McSally, who barely lost to Senator-elect Kyrsten Sinema in November? It’s still possible, but word is spreading that her stock has fallen in the governor’s office. One of the reasons was reportedly due to her campaign team’s...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leveraging his political power to try to convince Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to choose Rep. Martha McSally to replace Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who is considering leaving his seat before his term ends, several Republican sources familiar with the conversations tell CNN. McSally, a Republican congresswoman who once worked for Kyl, lost her Senate bid two weeks ago to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. Kyl, who was picked by the governor in September to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. John McCain. told CNN last week he has decided whether to leave office...

The Arizona Republican Party announced Thursday they will have an independent audit to review the Maricopa County Recorder's Office following the midterm elections. According to Arizona's GOP, the investigation will examine and report the Recorder's decision to open an emergency voting center before Election Day, voting procedures and challenges, ballot counting, results reporting process, and allegations of fraud in the election. In the press release, the GOP stated that they hope the audit will produce a fair, factually-based report that will help them understand what happened in the elections and address the voter concerns. AZ GOP's Chairman Jonathan Lines has...

The good thing about screwing up is that you can learn from your mistakes and do better next time. That, of course, assumes you are not a Republican Party official, because the GOP Establishment seems largely incapable of learning from its mistakes.We should try again anyway.We won some races, but we lost a lot more. Losing has one advantage over winning – pain is a better teacher than joy. After all, winning generally teaches you the wrong lessons. It makes you complacent. Look at Texas. The governor did worse than expected; Ted Cruz had a close call, and down ballot...

It’s official. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has emerged victorious over Republican Martha McSally in Arizona’s Senate race. Sinema will occupy the seat that will be vacated by spineless Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who would not have won re-election to his seat if he ran for re-election. Flake’s approval ratings are abysmal—and he would have lost handily in a primary challenge.  Congrats to @kyrstensinema. I wish her success. I’m grateful to all those who supported me in this journey. I’m inspired by Arizonans’ spirit and our state’s best days are ahead of us. pic.twitter.com/tw0uKgi3oO— McSally For Senate (@MarthaMcSally) November 13, 2018 For...

Outsiders think of Arizona as one of the reddest states. From Barry Goldwater to anti-immigration hawks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, our most famous politicians tend to be Republicans. But traditionally, Arizona is rather purple and regularly features tight statewide elections. In the past 45 years, Democrats have held the governorship as often as the Republicans. But in the last decade, the GOP consolidated their hold on power due to the unprecedented organization of the Tea Party and the Left’s hyperbolic anti-Arizona rhetoric in the wake of the illegal immigration debates. (“Vote for us, you dumb racists!” wasn’t the winning message...

Are you a Republican candidate? Want to win lavish praise from the liberal media? Easy! Get into a cliff-hanging election result, and instead of fighting it out, concede gracefully to your Dem opponent. As you'll see in the video clip, MSNBC's Morning Joe and CNN's New Day offered a perfect illustration of the phenomenon today. Both shows heaped praise on Republican Martha McSally for quickly and "gracefully" conceding to Dem Kyrsten Sinema in their Senate race in Arizona. In contrast, the two shows castigated Republican Rick Scott for fighting it out in Florida. But wait a second: MSNBC/CNN's point was...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Seems like there is a lesson to be learned in here somewhere. – So, lessee here…the pro-Trump Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, Doug Ducey, easily won his race by more than 150,000 votes. Meanwhile, the Trump-avoiding GOP senatorial candidate, Martha McSally, who basically campaigned as the second coming of despicable RINO Jeff Flake, lost her race by about 48,000 votes at the latest count. Hmmmm. How do we explain that? Think maybe there’s a cause and effect kind of thing going on there? Nah, must be something else, because your fake news...

Martha McSally was a #NeverTrumper before the 2016 election. She refused to attend the Republican convention. But Paul Ryan really liked her. Conservative radio host and author Mark Levin told his audience on Monday that McSally refused to go on his show.

BREAKING: Radical Code Pink Activist Democrat Kyrsten Sinema Wins AZ Senate Race After Thousands of Votes Appear Post Election Radical code pink activist Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won the Arizona Senate race against Martha McSally several days after the polls closed. Republican Martha McSally was ahead Tuesday evening when the polls closed, but the Democrats produced tens of thousands of ballots out of no where post election. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema got 1,071,947 votes vs. Martha McSally who got 1,039,778 with 99.8% of the precincts reporting, according to Politico.

Two former aides to the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) are publicly criticizing the Republican Party for seeking to cast doubt on the results of the Senate race in Arizona, where Democrat Kyrsten Sinema is narrowly edging out Republican Martha McSally. The tweets by Mark Salter on Saturday and John Weaver on Sunday come amid ramped-up scrutiny of the race, in which Sinema leads by a little more than one percentage point.

Local Arizona opinion FWIW (Arizona Senate Race Update)

McSally tallies fall behind Sinema according to the official state source.