Report: McConnell pushing Ducey to pick McSally if Kyl steps down
Nov 19, 2018, 5:58 PM | Updated: Nov 20, 2018, 8:11 am
PHOENIX – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to replace Sen. Jon Kyl with Martha McSally should Kyl step down at the end of the current session, CNN reported Monday.
McSally, a congresswoman who once worked for Kyl, lost to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema this month in the race to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, who didn’t run for re-election.
When Kyl was appointed to his second stint in the Senate in September after John McCain’s Aug. 25 death, he didn’t commit to the position beyond the end of this year.
Earlier this month, he told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News that he would revisit the topic with Ducey toward the end of the year.
Now that the midterm election is over, speculation has begun about the 76-year-old Kyl’s future and his potential replacement.
Citing unnamed Republican sources, CNN said McConnell and other national GOP heavyweights have made it known to Ducey that they want to see the seat go to McSally if it opens.
Last week, Kyl told CNN he hadn’t made up his mind yet but endorsed the idea of McSally being a senator.
“Martha McSally would be a very good member of the United States Senate, however she got there,” Kyl said. “And I regret that she didn’t make it in her election.”
Regardless of whether it’s Kyl, McSally or somebody else in the seat, voters will choose the person to fill out McCain’s term in a 2020 special election. Then the seat will be up again in 2022 for a full six-year term.
Kyl has said that if he remains in office until 2020, he would not run in the special election.