US Senate hopeful Kelli Ward gets $500K boost ahead of GOP primary
Jul 16, 2018, 5:20 PM | Updated: 9:07 pm
In this May 17, 2018, photo, Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward talks about her platform policies at a Scottsdale Tea Party event in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX — The Republican primary election for the U.S. Senate in Arizona is just weeks away and mega-donors are continuing to put big money into the race.
U.S. Senate hopeful Kelli Ward was recently given a $500,000 push from conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who donated the money to KelliPAC, a super PAC that backs the Republican candidate.
With this contribution, according to Politico, Mercer has given the pro-Ward Kelli PAC $800,000 this election cycle. He also backed Ward in the 2016 election season, in which she lost the Republican primary to U.S. Sen. John McCain.
An unnamed official with KelliPAC told the publication that the group would use the money to finance a new television ad attacking fellow candidate U.S. Rep. Martha McSally “as insufficiently conservative and attacking her for refusing to endorse then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.”
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A June poll from OH Predictive Insights showed that McSally had a 14-point lead over opponents Ward and Joe Arpaio, former Maricopa County sheriff, in the primary race for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
McSally dominated the poll with 39 percent, while Ward had 24.5 percent and Arpaio had 13.8 percent.
But a CBS News poll of likely voters from the same month showed Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema leading her Republican rivals in head-to-head match-ups.
Sinema topped Ward 43 percent to 35 percent; McSally 41 percent to 34 percent and Arpaio 45 percent to 28 percent.
