OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has responded to a report on Friday that suggested Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is attempting to recruit GOP Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona to run for the U.S. Senate.
The move, according to Revolver News, which broke the story, is an attempt by McConnell to replenish the Senate GOP with candidates less attuned to Trump’s brand of ‘MAGA’ policies and politics.
Revolver reports, however, that Ducey may be a bridge too far for McConnell, mostly because the governor’s wife isn’t keen on remaining in the political spotlight:
Between the House, Senate, and assorted gubernatorial races, there are nearly 500 major offices up for grabs in the 2022 mid-term elections. And out of those nearly 500 races, the Senate race unfolding in Arizona is by far the most important. It isn’t just crucial that the GOP win this seat and with it an overall Senate majority. It is crucial that the right candidate win the seat, in order to further the long-term transformation of the GOP into an America First political party.
Right now, though, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to sabotage this transformation by urging Governor Doug Ducey to enter the race, and the only obstacle to his plans is Ducey’s wife.
According to a source close to both Ducey and McConnell, Angela Ducey is eager to be out of the political spotlight, and has become irate with McConnell’s constant pleas for her husband to enter the race. Besides the usual difficulties that come with being a politician’s spouse, the past year has been particularly rough for Angela as her husband has been savaged from the right for his role in certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state.
But apparently, McConnell thinks nothing of putting the hurt on the Ducey marriage for the sake of sticking a metaphorical thumb in Donald Trump’s eye.
McConnell’s motivation is simple: He doesn’t like Donald Trump, and doesn’t like the direction Trump has taken the Republican Party. But he also can’t oppose Trump openly, and is instead stuck trying to wait out the president while elevating candidates who are loyal to the old GOP rather than the new one. For McConnell, Ducey is an enticing pawn in this proxy war.
Trump responded to the report with typical vigor via his Save America PAC.
“Rumors are that Doug Ducey, the weak RINO Governor from Arizona, is being pushed by Old Crow Mitch McConnell to run for the U.S. Senate. He will never have my endorsement or the support of MAGA Nation,” Trump said, according to the PAC.
Revolver News notes further that Arizona may represent the best opportunity for the GOP to pick up a seat in the 2022 midterms and with it, majority control of the Senate. That would put the brakes on Biden’s agenda, seen as more radically left than what he supported during his many decades in that chamber.
But also, the outlet said that McConnell’s pick of Ducey is a “test of whether a candidate can run, proudly, in a swing state, on President Trump’s revolutionary America-first platform and take home a victory,” adding that it’s one “Mitch McConnell does not want voters to face.”
Thus far, Trump has not formally backed a GOP challenger to Sen. Mark Kelly (D).
A Politico story published this week that quoted someone close to the former president essentially revealed Trump’s line of thinking.
“If Trump is planning to run for president — which all signs point to, he is — the most important thing should be to elect more people to the Senate who share his worldview,” the Trump adviser stated, according to Politico. “I think the biggest problem Trump had in the first four years was the lack of ideological supporters in the Senate.”
