After 2018 losses, new Arizona GOP chair doubles down on Trump support
Jan 29, 2019, 8:30 AM | Updated: 8:39 am
(AP Photo/Bob Christie, File)
(AP Photo/Bob Christie, File)
PHOENIX — After a midterm election that saw huge gains for Democrats in Arizona, the new head of the state’s Republican Party is steering lawmakers to support President Donald Trump.
“The party is strong, the party is united and the party ready to defeat our Democrat foes in the political election upcoming in 2020,” Kelli Ward told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Tuesday.
“I think we need to stay firmly behind the president and the excellent policies he’s implementing on the federal level and we also need to make sure people understand what Republicans stand for,” she added, pointing to more freedom, more liberty, lower taxes and smaller government.
“We all know, bigger the government, the smaller the citizen,” she said. “People in Arizona and people across the country are crying out for more freedom and more money in their pockets and that’s what Republicans deliver.”
Ward was elected as Arizona Republican Party chair over incumbent Jonathan Lines on Saturday, with a 633-526 vote.
She previously served in the state Senate from 2012 to 2016, when she resigned to run against John McCain for U.S. Senate and lost. Ward also ran for Jeff Flake’s seat in 2018 and lost. Krysten Sinema won Flake’s seat in November, making her the state’s first female U.S. senator and the first Democratic senator since the 1980s.
Ward had campaigned on her strong support for Trump and even appeared at a Mesa rally for the president in October.
“I am 100 percent behind President Trump and I look forward to being a huge part to helping him be re-elected in 2020,” she said Tuesday.
“I’m looking forward to making Arizona red again!”
