Jeff Flake Will He Run Again in 2020
Condemning the nastiness of Republican politics in the era of President Donald Trump, Sen. Jeff Flake on Tuesday appear he will serve out the remainder of his term simply volition non seek re-election in 2018.
The bombshell, which Scrap, R-Ariz., delivered Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor, will further roil Republican hopes of keeping the party'southward 52-seat Senate majority in the midterm elections of Trump's first term, when the president's party historically loses seats in Congress.
It besides likely will upend the race for Flake's seat. Scrap, who is among the Senate'due south more than prominent critics of Trump, had been struggling in the polls.
He told The Arizona Commonwealth ahead of his announcement that he had get convinced "there may non be a place for a Republican similar me in the current Republican climate or the electric current Republican Party."
MORE: Read the full text of Sen. Bit'southward speech communication
'Here's the lesser line ...'
Fleck said he has not "soured on the Senate" and loves the institution, but that as a traditional, libertarian-leaning conservative Republican, he is out of step with today's Trump-dominated GOP.
"This spell volition laissez passer, but not by next year," Flake said.
Among Republican primary voters, there'southward overwhelming back up for Trump's positions and "behavior," Flake said, and one of their top concerns is whether a candidate is with the president or against him. While he is with Trump on some issues, on other issues he is non, Flake said. And Trump definitely views Flake equally a foe, having denounced him publicly and called him "toxic" on Twitter.
"Hither's the bottom line: The path that I would take to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I'yard non willing to take, and that I can't in good conscience take," Scrap told The Commonwealth in a phone interview. "Information technology would require me to believe in positions I don't agree on such issues as trade and clearing, and information technology would require me to condone beliefs that I cannot disregard."
As of Sept. 30, Fleck's entrada had $three.4 one thousand thousand on hand. He has continued to raise money — as recently as Thursday, old Secretarial assistant of State Condoleezza Rice headlined a fundraiser for him in Arizona.
Flake said he had ruled out running as an independent rather than a Republican, saying he didn't call back that was a viable strategy. He besides said he has "no intention" of making a presidential run. Asked during a CNN interview whether he would entertain challenging Trump in 2020, Flake said, "I won't go there. That's a long fourth dimension abroad."
Senate race opens up
Kelli Ward, the one-time state senator from Lake Havasu City who lost her primary challenge last year against Sen. John McCain, has emerged this twelvemonth every bit the superlative GOP alternative to Chip.
But other names take been mentioned every bit possibilities: Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWit, former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Robert Graham and Arizona Board of Regents member Jay Heiler. Lesser-known Republicans Craig Brittain and Nicholas Tutora besides accept filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee and are running.
But Flake's exit is certain to entice bigger Arizona Republican names to take a fresh look at the GOP Senate race.
Steve Bannon, Trump'due south controversial former White House strategist, has embraced Ward as part of his national "open revolt" against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the GOP institution. But other Republicans take warned that Ward is a weak candidate whose nomination would jeopardize GOP chances of holding Arizona'south Senate seat.
"Arizona voters are the big winner in Jeff Flake's decision to not seek re-election," Ward said in a written statement. "They deserve a potent conservative in the U.Due south. Senate who supports President Trump and the 'America First' agenda. Our campaign proudly offers an optimistic path forward for Arizona and America."
The winner of the Aug. 28 Republican primary could face up Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., considered the Democratic Senate principal front-runner.
"It'due south been an award to know and serve with Jeff," Sinema said in an emailed statement to The Republic. "He is a man of integrity and a statesman who is truthful to his convictions – an Arizonan through and through. I wish he and (his wife) Cheryl and their family the very best."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Northward.Y., praised Fleck equally "one of the finest homo beings I've met in politics."
"He is moral, upright, and potent and he will exist missed by just about everybody in the Senate," Schumer said in a written statement.
Bannon, who is at present executive chairman of Breitbart News, was quoted by the New York Times late last month as saying if Flake "doesn't become a better poll in the side by side xxx days, you're going to see him step down or the establishment is going to make him."
Flake said he felt no pressure from McConnell or establishment Republicans to quit the race and insisted that he'southward not bothered by the thought that Trump and Bannon will crow victory.
"They tin can say whatsoever they desire to say," Flake said.
Dramatic Senate speech
Fleck publicly announced his intentions in a Senate flooring oral communication that began around noon Arizona fourth dimension.
In his spoken communication, Flake gave a baking critique of the "coarseness of our national dialogue" that has defined the Trump era, maxim it should never be accepted as "the new normal."
"We must never regard every bit 'normal' the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals," Flake said. "We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country — the personal attacks, the threats confronting principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most oft for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nil whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that nosotros have all been elected to serve.
"None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever exist regarded as normal," he said.
McConnell, the Senate majority leader, praised Flake after his floor speech.
"We regret to hear that our friend from Arizona volition conclude his Senate service at the end of his half dozen-year term," McConnell said. "And I'd similar to say ... on behalf of myself and I call back many of my colleagues, we've just witnessed a speech from a very fine human, a man who conspicuously brings high principles to the role every twenty-four hour period and does what he believes is in the best interest of Arizona and the state."
Flake said he had alerted McCain most his conclusion earlier going public. And the senior senator spoke from the Senate flooring soon after Flake concluded his remarks.
McCain called Flake "a homo of integrity and honor and decency and delivery to not but Arizona, but the U.s. of America" and said it has been one of the "great honors" of his life to serve with him.
"I have seen Jeff Flake stand up for what he believes in, knowing full well that at that place would exist a political cost to pay," McCain said.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., an ally of Flake'south who also has been publicly fighting with Trump, appear Sept. 26 that he would not seek a third Senate term.
The White Business firm characterized Flake's speech as petty.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that the Flake and Corker retirements are a reflection of Americans' public back up of the president — and non these Republican senators. It shows "the support is more behind the president than it is behind these ii individuals," she said.
Sanders said the senators should be "doing their chore instead of all this grandstanding." ... "Their loyalty should be to the American people. ... I hope we'll encounter that in their votes."
Rift formed with some in GOP
Flake, whose poll numbers have been tanking for at least a year, has publicly sparred with Trump since he emerged as a presidential contender in 2015. Chip refused to endorse or vote for Trump and, during the campaign, was a frequent critic of Trump's tone, tenor and key policy proposals, such as a border wall.
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Flake further antagonized Trump and the president's supporters this summertime past publishing a book, "Censor of a Conservative: A Rejection of Subversive Politics and a Return to Principle," that took the Republican Party to task for embracing protectionism, nationalism and other tenets of "Trumpism" at the expense of traditional Goldwater-Reagan GOP values.
Flake, 54, was start elected to the Senate in 2012, winning a hard-fought general election against erstwhile Surgeon General Richard Carmona later defeating GOP primary opponent Wil Cardon.
Prior to that, Flake served vi terms in the Firm starting in 2001.
Something of a political maverick, he routinely angered swain Republicans by highlighting their spending of taxpayer money on parochial priorities.
While in the Business firm, Chip's part ridiculed questionable pork projects with a series of "Egregious Earmark of the Week" news releases that usually included corny jokes and bad puns. In 2006, Flake was profiled by CBS' "60 Minutes" in a flattering segment that compared him to the principled Jimmy Stewart grapheme in the classic 1939 moving-picture show "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
His reform efforts are credited with helping pb to an earmark moratorium on Capitol Colina. "If I'g remembered as the guy who killed earmarks, that's a great affair," Bit told The Republic in 2012.
Flake took up other fights during his years on Capitol Colina.
Throughout his 17-yr political career, Flake has championed comprehensive clearing reform. Nonetheless, Congress hasn't come to terms on the issue and Flake's bipartisan work on legislation in the Business firm and Senate alienated many grass-roots bourgeois activists who consider a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal condition to be "amnesty."
Flake was a free-trader who believed that the economical embargo against Cuba, which dated to President John F. Kennedy's administration and was part of the U.S. endeavour to stop dictator Fidel Castro'due south brand of communism from spreading to other countries in the region, had long ago outlived its usefulness. Fleck worked for years to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, ordinarily siding with Democrats on the effect and, early in the 2000s, drawing the ire of President George W. Bush'due south administration and House GOP leaders. He plant an ally on the Republic of cuba issue in President Barack Obama.
He also worked with Democrats on legislation aimed at strengthening protections for civil liberties.
In 2006, Chip helped terminate powerful Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas, who was facing criminal prosecution at the time, from e'er returning to his task as House majority leader.
A chilling day for Bit
In June, Scrap was practicing with the congressional Republican baseball game team on a field in Virginia when a gunman opened fire on the group. Flake was unhurt, only Business firm Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was seriously injured. The gunman was killed at the scene.
Flake told The Democracy at the time that among the hail of bullets he had been unsure whether a congressional security detail at the ball field had as well been killed.
"For a while, our security detail was firing, and I didn't know if it was friendly," he said. "I kept yelling, 'Are y'all friendly? Are you friendly?' And he yelled back, 'Yes.' And I saw that it was Steve Scalise's detail. He happened to be at the practice, thankfully, or nosotros wouldn't accept had a detail. (Equally a fellow member of House GOP leadership) he's the but ane who has one."
For many, the politically motivated shooting underscored the level of acrimony surrounding politics.
Past withdrawing from his re-election race, Fleck is breaking from Arizona's tradition of long-serving U.Due south. senators, including Democrat Carl Hayden and Republicans Barry Goldwater and McCain.
Only one other senator from Arizona served just a single half-dozen-year term: Republican Ralph Cameron, who was elected in 1920 and ousted by Hayden in the 1926 election.
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Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of The Republic and Eliza Collins, Erin Kelly and Heidi Przybyla of Usa TODAY contributed to this story.
Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter, @dannowicki.
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Source: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/2017/10/24/republican-senator-jeff-flake-announces-not-running-senate-reelection-gop-primary-ward-trump/793952001/
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