Senate Republicans are privately growing worried about every comment Sen. Jeff Flake makes about President Trump. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Flake takes on Trump — and risks it all The Republican senator let loose on the president in an interview with POLITICO, even though it will likely hurt him in his 2018 primary.

Most Republicans threatened with primary challenges next year are opting not to criticize President Donald Trump — even those who are privately appalled by his bombastic governing style.

Then there’s Jeff Flake.


The Arizona senator is the rare incumbent running as an underdog in his own primary and just might be the most vulnerable Senate Republican on the ballot in 2018. But the first-term senator, who refused to support Trump last year, hasn’t backed away since, even as the president threatened to get behind a primary challenger against him.

If anything, Flake is determined to make his campaign against Trump-aligned candidate Kelli Ward a referendum on the future of the Republican Party.

“You can always eke out an election victory here and there,” he told POLITICO in an interview this week. “But … resentment is not a governing philosophy.”

The GOP has “deviated," Flake added. "We’ve taken a banner that is not familiar to us as Republicans. And I don’t know how long this will last.”

Flake chastised Trump’s protectionist trade positions and his party’s attempt to “scapegoat” immigrants for the country’s economic problems. And unlike other GOP senators, Flake publicly agrees with the sentiments of retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who recently blasted the president for potentially leading the country toward “World War III” with his erratic tweets and foreign policy pronouncements.

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“How are we going to ever have agreements with our adversaries or with our allies if they think that we’re not a reliable partner? And what we’ve seen lately will make them question whether we’re a reliable partner,” Flake said. “That’s what Bob expressed. And a lot of us shared that concern.”

Flake can be less pointed than Corker in his rhetoric but no less liberated in his actions, often surprising his staff with his independent streak. He didn’t disclose to them that he had penned “Conscience of a Conservative,” with its broad criticisms of the GOP’s “Faustian bargain” with Trump, until well after the book was completed. He appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, where Republicans are often skewered, against the advice of his own staff, according to GOP sources.

But the anti-conformist approach is a big risk for Flake.

Ward, who is supported by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, has led Flake in the only public primary poll. On Tuesday she kicked off her campaign, though she had already declared her candidacy, alongside Bannon and conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham, who declared that "Jeff Flake doesn't trust you."

“Since Donald Trump has been in the White House, Jeff Flake has been one of his biggest antagonists,” Ward said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “Those attacks are unfortunate. And that’s why he’s so weak.”

If Flake makes it through the primary, he’ll face Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has fashioned herself as a centrist during her three terms in Congress. Democrats believe they can beat Ward in a general election and possibly Flake if he alienates enough Trump supporters.

But Flake shrugged off any political fallout from his criticism of Trump. In a way, he seems to relish the upcoming campaign as a clarifying moment — a test of whether his vision of conservatism can coexist, or even thrive, in the Trump era. Though rumors have circulated that Flake may run as an independent or may not run at all, the senator insisted that he will stay in the party and noted that he is fundraising aggressively in preparation for his reelection bid.

“I’m a lifelong Republican. I’m concerned about where the party is,” he said. Flake added that he doesn’t believe that the party’s ideological shift under Trump will last.

“Because it can’t — populism is not a governing philosophy,” Flake said. “I do think that the party will come back to more traditional limited government, economic freedom, free trade, pro-immigration, strong American leadership.”

Still, the senator takes pains to point out where he and the president share similarities: In the interview, Flake mentioned his support for Trump’s deregulatory push, as well as his Cabinet picks and the conservative judges the president has nominated. He also speaks frequently to Vice President Mike Pence, a close friend from their shared time in the House. Yet he hasn't spoken to Trump himself since an all-senators meeting this summer.

Flake saves some of his sharpest criticisms for Trump's foreign policy, saying the United States’ standing has been diminished abroad.

Flake’s concerns run the gamut from how the White House has explained its rationale for decertifying the Iran nuclear deal to withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and “playing chicken” on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“A conservative foreign policy, in my view, is measured and sober and predictable,” Flake said. “And that’s not what we’ve had. And that’s what concerns me.”

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are privately growing worried about every comment Flake makes about Trump — who remains a popular figure among Republican voters.

Though they are no strangers to Flake’s frank rhetoric, GOP senators say that each time he breaks with the president, it makes his campaign that much harder, according to one colleague, who suggested Flake “needs to start spending money, now.”

“That’s who he is,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said of Flake’s outspokenness. “He’s a very candid, transparent kind of person, and if he feels strongly about something, he’s going to speak his mind. But as we all know, that can come with a cost, too.”

Flake publicly disregards those concerns and aligns himself with other Republicans who have been among Trump’s most high-profile intraparty enemies. When fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain took a clear dig at Trump with a vocal condemnation of “spurious nationalism” earlier this week, Flake nodded along at McCain’s criticism.

“It’s not just the president. This has been building for a while,” Flake said of the nationalist views McCain denounced. “The president has certainly taken advantage of the sentiment and has pushed it forward.”

And then there’s Corker, who was surprised that Flake shared his concerns about the administration’s foreign policy trajectory and jokingly worried that it may affect his political prospects: “I want him to come back here.”

Ward’s campaign says she has a significant lead in internal polling since Flake’s book has come out and he’s become known as a Republican willing to stand against Trump. And Republicans who have spoken out against the president are watching carefully what happens to Flake. McCain, for example, was never as tough on Trump during his 2016 reelection campaign.

“It’s a signal that may be sent,” McCain said of Flake’s race. “He is one of the most good, honest, decent people I have ever served with. And he stands for the courage of his convictions. I intend to do everything I can, including [going] door-to-door, to get him reelected.”

Flake’s willingness to deal with the minority and buck the party line has earned him several fans among Democrats, even as they work to oust him next November.

Flake is one of four Republicans who have endorsed the DREAM Act this year and is offering his own proposal for how to resolve the fate of young undocumented immigrants who will soon begin losing work permits after Trump decided to end an Obama-era directive for the so-called Dreamers. In his plan, Flake — a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that wrote a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013 — combined a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers with enforcement measures that key Democrats say are palatable.

“He’s an original sponsor of the DREAM Act, for goodness’ sakes. You know what that means to me,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a longtime advocate for Dreamers. “I respect him very much for it.”

