This is a recurring theme with a lot of GOP candidates:
Arizona US Senate candidate Kelli Ward's husband has a history of promoting fringe conspiracy theories on social media, a CNN KFile review has found.
Michael Ward, who like his wife is a doctor, is an Arizona political activist and heavily involved in his wife's campaign for the Republican nomination for US Senate in Arizona in the race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake. He frequently appears at campaign events, knocks on doors to speak with voters and has even appeared at a local event on his wife's behalf.
On Twitter, Michael Ward retweeted users who suggested that a murdered staffer of the Democratic National Committee, Seth Rich, was involved in the hacking of the organization's emails and who implied a conspiracy theory to cover up his death.
Michael Ward also frequently targeted Arizona Sen. John McCain over his age. In July 2016, when Kelli Ward was challenging McCain in a primary, Michael Ward said that McCain "is the weakness frail and scared guy that won't debate @kelliwardaz."
Michael Ward also frequently retweeted users who suggested Hillary Clinton murdered her political opponents.
Ward, along with Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R. AZ), are helping put frontrunner, Rep. Martha McSally’s (R. AZ) shot at the seat in jeopardy:
Arizona is one of just three races where Republicans are on defense as they seek to protect or grow their 51-49 Senate majority, and a victory here would go a long way in cutting off Democrats’ path to winning the chamber. But the state comes with challenges: President Donald Trump carried it by just 4 percentage points in 2016, and Democrats who have long hoped shifting demographics would move the Sun Belt in their direction say the opportunity to win a statewide race here is very real.
Arizona is problematic in another way for Republicans: The late, Aug. 28 primary turns the general election into a 10-week sprint, and that time frame is further shortened by extensive early voting by mail. Allies of Republican leaders in Washington think Ward can’t win the general election but have also worried that a protracted fight could cripple McSally’s fall campaign, making it difficult to shift to a general election focus.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is expected to coast to the Democratic nomination and start the general election with a sizable head start, having already spent millions of dollars on the airwaves with positive ads aimed at swing voters, campaign operatives in both parties say.
McSally, 52, a two-term House member, is employing a classic above-the-fray incumbent strategy. She’s ignoring the attacks from Ward, the insurgent, 49-year-old former state senator who started talking about running for this seat in October 2016, and from former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the immigration hard-liner who was pardoned by Trump last year after being convicted of criminal contempt.
And she’s aiming to avoid the very mistakes Ward is trying to goad her into by talking about the primary as little as possible. McSally sat with POLITICO for a nine-minute interview at Murphy’s Restaurant here before walking in the annual Frontier Days parade in front of a crowd of thousands surrounding the courthouse where Barry Goldwater announced his 1964 presidential bid, with Ward walking the same route a couple of hours behind her.
At the start of the interview, McSally pulled out her cellphone to show off an app counting down exactly 129 days, 10 hours and four minutes until polls close in November. Touting what she called her “commanding lead” over Ward and Arpaio, McSally said she’s not taking GOP primary voters for granted but that her focus is squarely on Sinema, whom she called “the real threat” to the Republican majority.
“People are getting excited about it and realizing how high the stakes are in this election, realizing that Arizona is the firewall to ensuring that we keep the Senate majority,” she said.
McSally is doing her best to not get drawn into a drawn-out brawl with Ward. But a drawn-out brawl is exactly what Ward — who was trounced by John McCain in a 2016 Republican primary but is running, by all accounts, a better campaign this time — wants.
In a speech delivered in her campaign headquarters in Tempe to a small group of campaign staff and volunteers wearing bright yellow “Kelli Ward” T-shirts, Ward said McSally was attempting to “reinvent herself” as a conservative on immigration and accused McSally of “rank hypocrisy.” She later accused McSally in an interview of running a “shadow campaign” and said she was “afraid” to debate Ward on the issues, particularly immigration.
"It's a shadow. It's a shadow campaign. Do you want a shadow or do you want a senator?" Ward said, dubbing herself the “true conservative” in the race.
Let’s let the GOP continue to devour itself. Let’s get ready to flip this seat. Click here to donate and get involved with Sinema’s campaign.