Martha McSally appointed to John McCain's Senate seat
Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally will replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl to fill for the next two years the Senate seat long held by the late U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision to appoint McSally, announced in a statement Tuesday and effective next month, revives her political life less than two months after she narrowly lost the race for the state’s other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
It also makes Arizona one of only a handful of states with two women in the U.S. Senate. Prior to Sinema's election, Arizona had never selected a woman to fill a Senate seat.
Sinema will assume the role of Arizona's senior senator, and will be sworn in on Jan. 3, with the new class of senators, Ducey said at a joint news conference Tuesday with McSally.
"I'm also going to respect the will of voters," Ducey said. "Sen.-elect Sinema was elected to the office and she's going to be sworn in first."
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In prepared statements, Ducey thanked Kyl for his service and invoked McCain's legacy of service.
McSally echoed similar sentiments and both she and Ducey set the expectation that McSally would work across party lines with Sinema, her 2018 political rival, to advocate for Arizona. McSally said she would represent the interests of all Arizonans.
"As I now deploy to the Senate, I pledge to devote all of my energies to ensuring that all Arizonans have a voice," she said.
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"I also look forward to working with Kyrsten Sinema in the Senate, just like we did in the House. There's a lot of common ground between us, and I'm ready to hit it running. Arizona's two senators have always worked together, for decades. That's our tradition and how we're most effective, and that's how I plan to serve."
Ducey cited McSally's military background and six deployments to the Middle East and Afghanistan. He also noted her battle with the Pentagon years ago to overturn a policy that required U.S. servicewomen in Saudi Arabia to wear Muslim abayas and headscarves.
To those critical of the appointment, given McSally's loss, Ducey noted that she earned the support of 1 million voters.
McSally: 'I am humbled and grateful'
McSally said she understands the challenges Arizonans face, having traveled every corner of the state during her unsuccessful 2018 Senate run.
Ducey's pick may anger an array of voters, from liberals and independents who rejected McSally in November to conservatives who view her as having blocked former state Sen. Kelli Ward from exciting the GOP base during the 2018 primary election.
His decision also may not sit well with another portion of the Republican electorate — the so-called "McCain Republicans" who were unsettled by her spurn of the senator as he battled cancer during her 2018 Senate race.
Sinema, who has assumed the mantle of leader of Arizona's Democratic Party with her Senate win, is expected to flex her political power to try to help Democrats in 2020 take the seat, which was held by McCain for six terms and the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, another Republican, before that.
McSally said she texted Sinema Tuesday morning. It's unclear what Sinema texted back, or if she did.
A spokesman for Sinema declined to comment about McSally's appointment.
If McSally were to lose again in 2020, it could spark a new round of Republican recriminations.
The appointment finally ends speculation about who will try to hold the seat for Republicans after McCain died of brain cancer in August. It comes after McSally met privately with Ducey earlier this month and with McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, last Friday.
McSally apologized to Cindy McCain
In that meeting, according to Republican sources, McSally apologized for not mentioning McCain's name last August during President Donald Trump's signing of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2019.
Cindy McCain expressed appreciation for the apology and conveyed the importance of her late husband’s legacy and his service to Arizona, according to those familiar with the women's 30-minute discussion.
Shortly after Ducey's decision was reported, Cindy McCain wrote in a statement on Twitter that she hoped McSally will serve in the spirit of her husband.
"My husband’s greatest legacy was placing service to AZ & USA ahead of his own self-interest," she wrote. "I respect @dougducey's decision to appoint @RepMcSally to fill the remainder of his term. Arizonans will be pulling for her, hoping that she will follow his example of selfless leadership."
McSally said she would hold herself to the same standard of service that McCain upheld: "Putting country before self and always striving to do the right thing for Arizonans."
McSally's appointment also opens a new chapter in the icy relationship between Sinema and McSally after a particularly brutal 2018 election cycle.
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Sinema has criticized McSally for running a campaign that she said was based on petty and personal attacks. Those included swipes at Sinema's clothing choices and statements Sinema made as a Green Party activist 15 years ago.
At the news conference with Ducey, McSally stressed that she looks forward to working with Sinema and noted that she congratulated Sinema on her win by phone and on the House floor.
"This is what it's all about, it's about service for Arizona," McSally said. "I think we can find that common ground and work together."
McSally's addition ensures Arizona will send familiar faces to Capitol Hill when the next Congress begins Jan. 3, but the state will soon have the most junior pair of senators in the country.
Kyl’s return to the Senate in September after more than five years away helped secure the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but he made clear when he accepted the appointment he pledged only to hold it through the end of the year.
Kyl announced last week that he would step down on Dec. 31.
By choosing McSally, Ducey has turned to the two-term Tucson Republican who once worked with Kyl and views him as a political mentor. While her relationship with Kyl was strong, her relationship with McCain seemed strained.
She reserved her Senate campaign website two days after McCain announced his brain tumor.
Ultimately, McSally ran for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, the state’s other Republican, whose own feud with Trump torpedoed his re-election prospects with GOP primary voters.
Throughout her Senate campaign, McSally tied herself rhetorically to Trump, who battled publicly for years with McCain.
The acrimony between McCain and Trump reached its climax Aug. 13, when Trump held a ceremony in New York’s Fort Drum with McSally at his side to sign the latest annual defense spending bill named in honor of McCain, who was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Trump didn’t mention McCain’s name; neither did McSally, angering those who worked for and respected the senator. McCain died 13 days later.
Like McCain, McSally was a former combat pilot. She did not secure the public endorsements of the late senator or his widow.
McSally publicly groused in the campaign’s final days that she was struggling to get some Republicans to vote for the GOP nominee.
McSally lost to Sinema by 56,000 votes, or 2.4 percentage points, but she has strong ties to two key GOP figures in Washington.
McSally has strong ties to McConnell, White House
During her Senate run this year, McSally received her strongest financial support from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and made several appearances alongside Trump, who spoke glowingly about her in an October visit to Luke Air Force Base.
"She is very special, a person that has taken the whole country by storm," Trump told reporters, with McSally sitting by his side. "They’re talking about you all over the country."
"This is a non-politician who is brilliant and brave and became a politician and became very successful. Her district loved her," he continued.
McSally likely will face Arizona voters again in 2020, when they select the permanent replacement to finish what will be the final two years of the six-year term McCain began after the 2016 elections.
She is a prolific fundraiser who is likely to face another well-financed Democratic opponent.
Ducey opted for McSally over others, perhaps most notably Kirk Adams, his former chief of staff who recently left the governor's administration after serving for the first term.
Sinema and McSally make history together
Sinema and McSally will be the ninth pair of women representing the same state at the same time in the Senate’s history. They will be only the second pair to include both a Democrat and a Republican.
The two women represent the political middle ideologically and served in the House together the past four years, but an ugly yearlong campaign left any rapport between the two seemingly in tatters.
McSally memorably suggested Sinema supported "treason" while discussing her anti-war views ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sinema scarcely looked at McSally in their lone televised debate in October and in an icy editorial board meeting with The Republic days later.
McSally, a former combat pilot, restores a measure of military experience to the state’s Senate contingent. McCain, a Vietnam war veteran, died as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. McSally is a member of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.
Kyl steps down after 18 years in his first Senate stint and less than four months in his second. He is expected to return to lobbying in Washington.
Follow the reporter on Twitter @yvonnewingett and @ronaldjhansen. Contact them at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com and ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com.
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