Former Sen. Jeff Flake said he won't be voting for President Donald Trump this year, and he thinks the Republican Party will be better off if Trump loses his reelection bid.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Flake, R-Ariz., picked up a theme that marked the end of his six-year term in the Senate: He is struck by the ideological surrender of his GOP colleagues to Trump's brash, slashing politics.

Unsurprisingly, Flake said he won't be backing his party's nominee in November.

"This won’t be the first time I’ve voted for a Democrat — though not for president (before)," Flake said in the interview. "Last time I voted for a third-party candidate. But I will not vote for Donald Trump."

It is the kind of candor that has left Flake effectively excommunicated from his party and a pariah to most Democrats, especially after his key support for confirming now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump, at least for now, didn't respond to a man whose political career he derailed.

Flake was asked whether Republicans would be better served by a second Trump administration or a lopsided loss.

"Oh, a sound defeat, no doubt," Flake said. "Long term for the Republican Party, you bet. And for conservatism as well."

Flake, who left the Senate in 2019, maintained there is still a silent resentment among Republicans for Trump, whose popularity among GOP voters remains stratospheric.

"I don’t know anyone who thinks that this is the future of the party. This is a demographic cul-de-sac we’re in, if nothing else," Flake said. "Anger and resentment only go so far; you have to have a governing philosophy. I don’t know of any of my colleagues who really believe this is it."

Flake also alluded to his dismay at Trump's February campaign rally in Phoenix. That event, among the last held before the coronavirus forced the nation into lockdown, featured an array of Arizona Republicans on stage with the president, from Gov. Doug Ducey and Sen. Martha McSally to all four of the state's GOP House members.

"The other night it was painful to watch the rally in Arizona: the president onstage with virtually all of my Republican colleagues from Arizona — the governor on down, some of whom had been reluctant previously to be on a campaign stage with the president. But who have just completely and utterly thrown in. Total capitulation of the party to Trumpism," Flake said.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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