A Big Fight For John McCain’s Senate Seat Is Brewing

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain talks to reporters about an incident earlier when members of an anti-war group approached a witness table where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madele... Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain talks to reporters about an incident earlier when members of an anti-war group approached a witness table where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and George P. Shultz were testifying, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The protesters carried signs calling the 91-year-old Kissinger a war criminal, when McCain blurted out, "Get out of here, you low-life scum." As a Navy aviator during the Vietnam War, McCain was shot down during a bombing mission over Hanoi, then imprisoned and tortured by the North Vietnamese for five years. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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A big fight seems to be brewing, with Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) seat as the prize.

On Tuesday, David McIntosh, the new president of the Club for Growth, signaled at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast that his tea party-aligned organization would look at Reps. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) and David Schweikert (R-AZ), both who have signaled interest in waging a primary challenge against McCain.

The Hill recently reported that both congressman have been analyzing the race, but since they’re close friends, only one of them will likely decide to challenge McCain.

McIntosh said at the breakfast that his group was in the early stages of looking at the 2016 Senate races but suggested that Club for Growth would closely watch McCain’s re-election. McCain will be a top target of conservatives seeking to knock off one of the more moderate-aligned Republicans in the Senate.

“In Arizona, we will watch that carefully,” McIntosh said. “We will look at John’s record and his score. We’ll see if either of the two members who, you’re right, the Club’s supported and thinks well of in Congress. Does one of them decide to enter the race? And then we’re disciplined about it so we’ll do research and polling and determine is there a path to victory and is the money well spent.”

McCain hasn’t formally said whether he will run for re-election or not but in January the Associated Press reported that he’s “likely” to run again.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) recently created a new political action committee which will let her hoard cash, possibly in preparation of running for McCain’s seat. The Arizona Republic, which first reported Sinema’s new Getting Stuff Done PAC, suggested that Sinema could decide to run against McCain in 2016 or Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in 2018.

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  1. Is there really any way for Sinema to win a statewide race in Arizona, even with a presidential wave to help?

  2. Maybe if the Hispanic vote is heavy enough. It depends entirely on the demographic shift. Arizona is projected to be a majority minority state this year. GOTV is a big deal.

  3. Someone here thought McWar was retiring not long ago. Like I said then and I’ll say it now, I suspect Daddy Warbucks wants to die in office. It will be the only thing left for him to squeeze out of that totally false narrative of the Mavericky McCain in Congress. He’s ego-bound to stay-put and await for his momentous day…He really has very little left to offer otherwise. Besides, he probably figures, why let a good retrospective go to waste?

    If only he could be ousted earlier…How much worse can Arizona do? They’re already mired in dumbfuck politicians for the most part. I used to think Arizona was a progressive state growing up. Haven’t thought that for a lonnnng time now.

  4. McCain’s a moderate? Since when?

  5. He probably figures he’s a dead man walking if he retires. His grandfather died three days after retiring from the Navy and his father did the same after a few weeks or months. I suspect that he just couldn’t live without his weekly appearances on Sunday shows.

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