Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, broke Sunday with GOP colleagues including ally Lindsey Graham by suggesting Republicans rally behind Donald Trump.

"You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party," the Arizona senator and 2008 GOP nominee said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "I think it would be foolish to ignore them."

McCain recently said privately that with Trump as the GOP's nominee, his re-election chances this year in Arizona are in danger.

"This may be the race of my life," McCain said at an Arizona fundraiser in April.

But on Sunday the 2008 Republican presidential nominee differed with Graham, a South Carolina GOP senator who is his closest Senate ally, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who has balked at backing Trump.

McCain said party leaders cannot abandon the party's voters, who picked Trump.

"You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance, if not a disconnect, between party leaders and members of Congress and the many voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party," McCain said.