On Tuesday, Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, and an anti-immigration hardliner, announced on Twitter that he intends to run for retiring Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake’s Senate seat. “I am running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Arizona,” he tweeted, “for one unwavering reason: to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again.”

From the Washington Examiner:

In a telephone interview with the Washington Examiner, Arpaio shrugged off concerns about his age, dismissed Republican insiders’ anxiety that his poor reputation with nonwhite voters would put the seat in play for the Democrats in the midterm, and discussed plans to work with Trump on behalf of Arizona. “I have a lot to offer. I’m a big supporter of President Trump,” Arpaio said. “I’m going to have to work hard; you don’t take anything for granted. But I would not being doing this if I thought that I could not win. I’m not here to get my name in the paper, I get that everyday, anyway.”

Arpaio joins former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward, also an anti-immigration candidate and outspoken supporter of Trump, in the primary. Rep. Martha McSally, the preferred candidate of the Republican establishment, has a “special announcement” in Tucson scheduled for this Friday.

In July 2017, Arpaio was convicted for refusing to end a program of racial profiling. He was pardoned in August by President Trump. At the time, half of Arizonans opposed Arpaio’s pardon, according to an OH Predictive Insights poll, and a majority disapproved of the job Trump was doing in the White House. Trump did not perform especially well in Arizona in 2016, winning 48 percent of the vote and beating Hillary Clinton by just 3 points.

Arpaio enters the race with high name recognition and a bloc of support within the party base. But a primary victory for Arpaio would make an already plausible Democratic pickup even more likely. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is thought to be the frontrunner in the Democratic primary.