Despite lack of Senate run, Grant Woods wants to help 2020 Democrats

PHOENIX — Even though Grant Woods has formally announced that he would not run for U.S. Senate in Arizona next year, that does not mean he will not be involved in another high-profile race.

Woods told KTAR News 92.3 FM that he would put his efforts into getting a Democratic nominee elected as president — and hopes his good friend and former Vice President Joe Biden will be the next occupant of the White House.

“I hope Biden runs for president. I think he’d be a great president. I think he’s actually just what the country needs right now,” Woods said.

“We need mature, experienced leadership and someone to right the ship, basically. Then you can hand it off to the next generation. But right now, I believe, I think he wins and I think that’s what the country needs right now. So I’m encouraging him to run.”

So far, Biden isn’t among the growing number of Democrats who have declared their candidacies. Woods, who was a Republican when he served as Arizona’s attorney general and late U.S. Sen. John McCain’s chief of staff, re-registered as a Democrat last year.

Woods told Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes on Friday that he would not seek a Senate bid, saying that he does not want to throw his hat in what is expected to be a long and expensive Democratic primary.

But Woods said he hopes to play a major role in the 2020 race for president, adding that he does not “want to just sit on the sidelines during this election.

“I want to make sure that we nominate somebody who can beat Donald Trump, and that’s not going to be as easy as people think,” he added.

“I think there are some Democrats who clearly would beat Trump, but there’s some who clearly would not. So I have to get in that fight, I think that’s probably a more important fight right now.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Ali Vetnar contributed to this report. 

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