Paul Gosar endorses Kelli Ward for Senate, attacks Martha McSally's GOP credentials

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | The Republic | azcentral.com

Rep. Paul Gosar, a conservative Republican from northwestern Arizona, broke from traditional norms and endorsed former state legislator Kelli Ward for the U.S. Senate over his colleague Rep. Martha McSally.

In a statement announcing the endorsement, Gosar questioned McSally’s conservative Republican credentials, a public broadside to the conservative image she has been peddling to primary voters as she seeks the GOP nomination for Arizona’s open Senate seat.

“We cannot afford another establishment patsy who promises one thing and votes differently,” Gosar’s statement said.

“Arizona has suffered for years with a lackluster senate delegation that promised one thing during the election and did another back in D.C. — Kelli is not like that.

“Her opponent, Martha McSally, is. In my time working with Martha, I found her, though likable personally, to be very inconsistent politically. None of us can count on Martha keeping a campaign promise as she will fall for whatever the D.C. elite tells her to do at the time. I have seen that firsthand.”

Ward, of Lake Havasu City, embraced Gosar’s support and said she looks forward to fighting with him on Capitol Hill.

A spokeswoman for McSally said Gosar is a less-reliable ally of President Donald Trump than McSally.

"Rep. Gosar is a good man who cares about his constituents, but the facts are the facts," Torunn Sinclair, McSally's campaign spokeswoman, said. "The fact is Congresswoman McSally votes with the president 97 percent of the time while Congressman Gosar only votes with the president 77 percent of the time. If he voted with the president as much as Martha, we could accomplish even more for Arizonans."

Gosar is a four-term congressman and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and could deliver to Ward primary voters who are not completely sold on McSally in the Aug. 28 primary.

He's also a lightning rod for controversy.

Last year, Gosar came under fire for pushing far-right conspiracy theories, suggesting last year's violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was planned by "an Obama sympathizer" and that liberal activist George Soros turned his fellow Jews over to the Nazis.

With illegal immigration as a top issue, Gosar — who earlier this year called for the arrest "dreamers" who attended Trump's State of the Union address — said Ward won’t cave to liberal interests, unlike McSally who has “many times supported blanket amnesty to criminals.”

In May, McSally dropped her support for immigration-reform legislation that offered a pathway to citizenship for undocumented dreamers in favor of a less generous alternative that she co-sponsored that also would sharply reduce legal immigration.

Gosar calls for arrest of 'dreamers' at State of the Union Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is calling for any undocumented immigrant attending President Trump's State of the Union speech on Tuesday to be arrested and deported.

McSally’s critics painted the move as political and opportunistic: It came as she was facing Ward, whose hardline illegal immigration positions have defined her politics, and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Gosar said the decision is between someone who supports Trump’s full agenda, and a “Never Trumper.”

McSally has not said whom she voted for in the 2016 election and during a town hall last year, described Trump's early days as "tremendously bumpy."

But on the campaign trail, much of McSally's pitch is centered on her relationship with President Donald Trump and the access that affords.

While Ward is laser-focused on chipping away at McSally's support, the Congresswoman is attacking Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the presumed front-runner in the Democratic primary.

Sinema faces activist and attorney Deedra Abboud in that race.

Follow the reporter on Twitter @yvonnewingett and Facebook. Reach her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com.

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