For the first time in decades, Arizona elected a Democratic president in November and sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate. One would think this loss would cause some sort of introspection among members of the Arizona Republican Party. But instead, the state GOP seems bent on wallowing in its own lack of self-awareness.
In an extraordinary move this weekend, the Arizona GOP voted to censure Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain — Ducey, for implementing “dictatorial” coronavirus restrictions, and McCain and Flake for endorsing Biden and his “leftist causes.” The censures are largely ceremonial, but they prove the Arizona GOP is more interested in licking Trump’s boots than it is in winning elections.
Arizona has been steadily turning purple over the past several years. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema beat the GOP’s candidate in 2019, and Democrat Mark Kelly followed suit this fall. A competent political party would have looked at their opposition’s successes and realized that the fault was its own: Either the GOP candidates’ campaign tactics failed, or their campaign pitch fell flat. Regardless, the Arizona GOP should have recognized that something needed to change if Republicans were going to hold onto the state.
Instead, the Arizona GOP declared war on some of the state party’s most popular figures. Say what you will about their records, but Flake and the late Sen. John McCain never lost an election in Arizona. In fact, McCain beat Kelli Ward, now the Arizona GOP’s chairwoman, in a 2016 primary election after being censured himself by his state colleagues. Similarly, Ducey won reelection in 2018 handily even as Democrats took one of Arizona’s Senate seat. Clearly, these Republicans were more in tune with Arizona’s voters than any one of the Arizona GOP’s leaders.
The Arizona GOP does not need to endorse every single one of these Republicans’ ideas, but it also doesn’t need to vilify and ostracize them. This censure will only further divide Arizona’s Republican voters and help Democratic candidates across the state. Seriously: If the Arizona GOP was working to turn the state blue, what would it be doing differently?
