Kelli Ward, the bomb-throwing conservative former state senator and loyalist to President Donald Trump, upended the race to lead the Arizona Republican Party by beating the establishment favorite and incumbent GOP chairman, Jonathan Lines.

In doing so, Republicans from across the state on Saturday chose a more right-wing vision headed into the 2020 election cycle where Arizona is poised to reach battleground status.

The election could have far-reaching implications for how the party messages to voters and how it spends money on races.

Ward's ouster of Lines also raises questions about the state party's relationship in the near future with the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Spokespeople for the groups either did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment or declined to talk.

During the rowdy state GOP meeting, the committeemen embraced Ward, who emerged over the past two election cycles as a popular personality among the grassroots Republicans who largely represent Trump’s base and so-called "tea party" conservatives even as she failed to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in back-to-back primaries.

In doing so, the party committeemen rejected a more moderate vision for Arizona GOP politics associated with the long-serving late U.S. Sen. John McCain and former U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, sowing frustration with some who said they may abandon their party registration under Ward's leadership.

McCain easily defeated Ward's primary challenge in 2016; Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., defeated her in the 2018 primary.

"Don’t get me started on this.... great day for Az Democrats," McCain's daughter, television commentator Meghan McCain, wrote on Twitter as it became clear Ward would win.

Ward's supporters demanded the vote be taken via roll call, which created a chaotic voting system for some.

Supporters of Lines, who had been an ally of McCain's, were shocked and in disbelief. There were hushed tones in the room as the results were announced.

Lines congratulated Ward on her win, according to her spokesman, Zachery Henry. The two hugged and he wished her the best of luck during her two-year tenure.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Lines said it had been "my greatest pleasure to serve the Arizona Republican Party. And I wish Dr. Ward success for the 2020 elections."

Ward was sworn in as the new state GOP chairwoman on Saturday. She told The Republic she doesn't plan to take a salary for the job.

Both sides entered the day unsure of how it would unfold, given unrest with Lines’ performance during the 2018 cycle and Ward’s strong ties to the rank-and-file Republicans who see her as one of them.

The room seemed to turn in Ward’s favor after she took the stage and energetically reminded them of the losses under Lines. She cast herself as an enthusiastic voice for Arizona conservatives.

“We have to win 2020 for President Trump, we’ve got to win back the ground we lost in the midterms in 2018 and I pledge to do just that,” Ward said during her three-minute candidate speech where she said she would invigorate Republicans who feel left out of the process. “Mark my words: These next two years will be the most important two years for this great state of Arizona.”

Many jumped to their feet in applause. She was clearly the crowd favorite.

Lines and his more establishment supporters touted his successes and desire to unify the party. His re-election campaign was backed by the state’s top GOP leaders, including Ward’s 2018 primary rival — McSally — and Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jon Kyl and former Gov. Jan Brewer.

In making his pitch to the hundreds gathered at the church, Lines touted his fundraising successes last cycle, dedication to the GOP agenda under Trump, and his get-out-the-vote efforts that helped turn out a record number of Republicans last cycle.

Lines' remarks did not fire up the crowd in the same way Ward did. He appeared fidgety and nervous throughout the day, chewing on the end of a pen and staring at a notebook as votes were called.

Ward, who was a state senator from Lake Havasu City, has had a history of controversies since entering Arizona's political scene.

In 2014, she hosted a meeting in Kingman to discuss concerns about "chemtrails," the fringe conspiracy theory that airplanes are spraying dangerous chemicals into the air through their contrails. Ward said she never believed in "chemtrails" herself, but critics said she wasted taxpayer resources to pander to those who did. McCain's 2016 campaign dubbed her "Chemtrail Kelli," a term her campaign denounced as sexist.

As a Republican insurgent who took on McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee, Ward became a favorite of conservative pundits such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. She also has had associations with controversial figures on the right, such as Paul Nehlen, a self-described "Pro-White" Wisconsin congressional candidate who was disavowed by the GOP, and conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones.

Last year, she drew negative national attention by suggesting that McCain's family timed the announcement about his ending treatment for brain cancer to hurt her Senate campaign. McCain died Aug. 25, just a few days before Arizona's Aug. 28 primary election.

Ward’s win raises questions about the state party’s future relationship with national Republican groups who work to elect Republicans here and across the nation. Some of those groups have viewed her as a fringe-Republican whose views are not aligned with the brand of candidates they have worked to advance, such as McSally. Those groups may take a fresh look at how they may invest in the party, or whether they will want to find other entities to run their resources through.

Saturday’s daylong gathering at a north-central Phoenix church displays the fissures that appear to have deepened following the party’s brutal losses in 2018, namely Democrat Kyrsten Sinema's victory over McSally for Flake's U.S. Senate seat. The statewide offices of secretary of state and state superintendent of public instruction also flipped to Democrats. McSally wound up in the Senate anyway this year after Ducey appointed her to fill the seat vacated by Kyl.

During the sometimes-rowdy gathering of the party’s state committee, some rank-and-file Republicans openly blamed Lines for the setbacks while others said they were because of anti-Trump sentiment that could be beat back in 2020 with the right mix of messaging and candidates.

Pat Sexton, a retired teacher from Tucson, said she voted for Ward because of last cycle’s losses.

“Things could have been done a lot better,” Sexton said. “Down there, we lost Congressional District 2 — it went to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick."

“I don’t really know how much help the state Republican Party was for us,” Sexton said.

Palmer Miller, of Casa Grande, threw his support to Ward, hoping for a fresh voice. He was impressed with the way she ran her 2018 Senate campaign and hopes she works across GOP factions to unify the party heading into the critical 2020 race.

“She’ll have a fresh look at it, and that’s good,” Miller said. “I think she has charisma where she’ll be able to bring people together and keep them together. I’ve always been impressed with her campaign and how she presents herself.”

Ward will take the helm of an organization flush with about half a million dollars.

Saturday's election closes a bitter battle for the chairmanship of the state GOP, where questions were raised about the handling of her campaign committee's finances. And in the weeks leading up to the election, it surfaced in a police report that her husband, Michael, was accused of spitting in the eye of one of her former volunteers because the volunteer subsequently supported her former political foe, McSally.

Across town, at a west-side high school, the Arizona Democratic Party gathered. There, they re-elected attorney Felecia Rotellini as chair. She faced no competition.