Wall Street Journal
By Siobhan Hughes
August 21, 2017
PHOENIX— Donald Trump’s impulse to punch back at Republicans who challenge him is dividing the party in Arizona and threatening the 2018 re-election of Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents.
Mr. Flake opposes Mr. Trump’s trade and border-wall plans, has criticized the president’s remarks about protests over a Confederate statue in Virginia, and wrote a book that alluded to “impulse-control problems” and suggested the president had won election on a “sugar high of populism, nativism, and demagoguery.”
Mr. Trump, who last week called Mr. Flake “toxic” and “weak on borders,” is likely to whip up even more negative feelings about Arizona’s junior senator. Tuesday, the president is set to visit a Marine Corps facility in Yuma, near the Mexican border, before holding a rally in Phoenix that evening.
Already, the senator’s criticism is turning off some Trump voters. “It’s his attitude across the board to Trump,” said Marilyn Higgins, a Republican from Fountain Hills who has called Mr. Flake’s office to say she can’t vote for the senator next year. “To him, Trump is the enemy.”
Mr. Flake won his seat in 2012 with 49% of the vote, just 3 percentage points ahead of his Democratic rival. His is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP-held seats next year, when the overall map favors Republicans as they look to expand their 52-seat Senate majority.
The path for Mr. Flake won’t be easy. He faces a tough primary, with possibly two GOP challengers, and if he wins the nomination he is expected to face U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in November 2018. Ms. Sinema has more cash on hand than Mr. Flake and has kept herself from being an easy target for Republicans by at times breaking with her own party, on issues such as immigration measures.
Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit, who ran Mr. Trump’s Arizona campaign, is said to be considering a primary challenge to Mr. Flake, and Kelli Ward, who lost to Sen. John McCain in last year’s primary and who has won praise from the president, is already in the race.
Monday, at a chamber of commerce breakfast in Gilbert, Mr. Flake tried to avoid stirring the dispute further. He talked about water management, taxes, health insurance and his interest in staying in trade agreements instead of pulling out of them. He never once mentioned Mr. Trump by name, although he did allude to the leader of his party.
“We’ve got to get away from calling our opponents losers or clowns,” Mr. Flake said. He brushed off Mr. Trump’s attacks on him. “I don’t worry about it at all,” Mr. Flake told reporters. “I’m just doing my job.”
It is an uncomfortable dilemma for Mr. Flake—and other Arizona Republicans.
Saturday at a Fountain Hills Republican Club meeting, things started off with equanimity. An organizer announced a coming picnic and gun raffle to raise money for and veterans and police. A deep-voiced pastor delivered a rousing encomium praising a unified GOP. The invited speaker, the executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, thanked the group for its positive tone at a time of intraparty tensions.
Then the cracks started showing.
“I’m tired of the Republican leadership, congressmen, senators that are disparaging our president of the United States,” Art Tolis, a mortgage broker who serves on the town council, told GOP Rep. David Schweikert, who represents the district northeast of Phoenix.
He pressed Mr. Schweikert, who came after a neighbor dropped an invitation in his mailbox, to go to Mr. Trump’s rally and give the president a warm welcome. Mr. Tolis later said he wouldn’t vote for Mr. Flake because of what the senator has said about Mr. Trump.
“I don’t agree with somebody writing a book, publishing a book against a Republican president of the United States,” said Mr. Tolis, who backed Mr. Flake in 2012. Mr. Tolis said he would vote for Ms. Ward in next year’s GOP primary.
It was the same for Sheila Muehling, treasurer of the Maricopa County Republican Party, who disagreed with Republicans who rebuked Mr. Trump for saying there was blame on both sides after an alleged white nationalist drove his car into counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., killing a woman.
“Jeff Flake—I just don’t see how he stands for the things I stand for,” Ms. Muehling said. She said she could support Mr. DeWit, especially if Mr. Trump endorses him on Tuesday.
Mr. Flake has his supporters. His book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” is so popular that every copy is checked out of the public library in downtown Chandler. His backers are encouraged by the senator’s demeanor and his willingness to speak up against what he has described as a new viciousness in politics.
“The civility that he’s trying to bring back really means so much,” said Rachel Smetana, a Scottsdale resident who is chief of staff to the city’s mayor. “He’s probably more conservative than I am normally, but I just appreciate the fact that he is trying to be sober-minded about things and he really wants to bring statesmanship back.” She expects to vote for Mr. Flake next year.
“We know the president holds grudges, and Trump has publicly said that when he is attacked, he will punch back harder,” political analyst Nate Gonzales wrote on Inside Elections last week after downgrading his estimate of Mr. Flake’s chances of winning. “That’s not a good combination for Flake if he’s trying to tamp down a primary.”
Mr. Flake, for his part, is resigned to the pressure. “It is what it is,” he told reporters. “We’ve got a lot of support around the state. We’ve got a good campaign, so it will take care of itself.”
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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