Kelli Ward doctors President Trump tweet in campaign mailer 2 weeks before Senate primary

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Kelli Ward answers questions after Jeff Flake announces he won't run again Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez asks former state lawmaker Kelli Ward about U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake's announcement he won't run again, President Donald Trump, and what Arizona voters want next. Nate Kelly/azcentral.com

Kelli Ward has sent campaign mailers to voters ahead of this month's Republican U.S. Senate primary that included a misleadingly edited tweet from President Donald Trump, whose support in the election could prove crucial.

"Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running," said the truncated, year-old tweet on the Ward mailer that landed in mailboxes in the final stretch of the primary race for the U.S. Senate.

But the Ward campaign lopped off 79 critical characters from the president's original tweet from Aug. 17, 2017, and moved up information detailing the date, time, "retweets" and "likes."

The full tweet, sent when retiring incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was still in the race, said: "Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He's toxic!"

Two months after that tweet, Flake announced he would not seek re-election amid the unfavorable political headwinds of the Trump era.

A Ward spokesman defended the mailer and its altering of the president's tweet and said the editing was not disingenuous.

"The message of the tweet remains the same: President Trump is happy to see Dr. Kelli Ward running against candidates who are weak on illegal immigration, for open borders, and have a history of criticizing his personal decisions and public decisions before and after he was elected," spokesman Zachery Henry said, a reference to Ward's primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally of Tucson.

Here's who is running for Senate in Arizona Here's what you need to know about Arizona's Senate candidates: Kyrsten Sinema, Deedra Abboud, Joe Arpaio, Martha McSally and Kelli Ward.

A spokeswoman for McSally's campaign declined to comment about the mailer.

Trump has not endorsed any candidate in the Republican primary, but his influence looms large. On Monday, Trump praised McSally as "terrific" at a bill signing event at Fort Drum in New York.

In TV ads, radio ads, mailers, stump speeches and town halls, the Republican candidates are tethering themselves to his policies and politics and, at times, adopting his combative style.

Ward has been trying to land the president’s endorsement since the earliest days of her campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, meanwhile, asked the president during a recent phone call to endorse McSally in the race, fearing that Ward could win the GOP primary but lose the general election, according to a report by Politico.

Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, has said he has not asked for Trump's endorsement, keeping with his style to never ask people to support him.

Arpaio, who had not seen Ward's mailer until he was contacted by the newspaper, weighed in Tuesday.

"That's not being fair," he said of the edited Trump tweet.

The president's tweet is featured over a photo of Ward wearing a doctors coat, and a photo of herself standing alongside Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

When the picture was taken — in December 2017 — Trump specifically asked that the photo not be shared, according to a White House official who witnessed the brief exchange but was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Subsequently, a person familiar with the operations of Trump's campaign said in a written statement that the president likes all of the candidates.

"President Trump has not endorsed anyone in the GOP Senate primary in Arizona and any photos or other general expressions of support shouldn’t be read as such," the person wrote in a statement to The Republic in late July. That person had no immediate comment on Tuesday about Ward's new mailer.

Ward's spokesman said Tuesday that the campaign had not heard from the White House or Trump's campaign about its use of the photo.

The mailer landed in Liz Dreckman's mailbox a couple of days ago.

It sent the Tempe Republican to investigate online to see if Trump finally had thrown his support to Ward. Dreckman declined to say whom she intends to vote for, adding that she is considering Ward.

But she's no fan of deceptive political advertising, she said.

"It seems like people on both sides are taking things out of context to serve their own purposes and it's kind of an abuse of the public trust," she said. "You can't take a sentence that someone says and take it out of context to twist what its meaning is."

Deceptive advertising can cost candidates votes, particularly with undecided voters. In such a hotly contested race, every vote matters.

"Those undecideds are looking for someone they can trust," said Bert Coleman, Republican political consultant who is not representing any of the GOP candidates. "They're looking for reasons to vote for someone and they're also looking for reasons to not vote for someone. She can be close to Trump without ... doctoring up tweets."

The Republican nominee faces the winner of the Democratic primary. That race pits Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a three-term congresswoman, against progressive activist and attorney Deedra Abboud.

The well-funded Sinema is widely expected to win her party's nomination.

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