Sunday, June 21, 2015

Dr. Kelli Ward can unseat McCain, just ask Virginia conservatives



Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward (R-Lake Havasu City) is the closest of anyone to announcing a run against Senator John McCain in the 2016 primary. Her exploratory committee continues to evaluate whether the financial and logistical path to victory exists.
Ward is a family physician, not a career politician; Obamacare propelled her run for office. “It [Obamacare] was such an offense to me that the federal government was gonna try to take over my patients and their freedom, their liberty, their ability to get the kind of care that they want and need,” she said, on The Mark Levin Show. She described the “blood sweat and tears” she spent working to become a doctor.

Senator Ward has made a name for herself in the state legislature sponsoring more than forty bills, including banning traffic citation cameras and restoring gun rights. Her voting record provides ample evidence that she is a principled conservative and takes action on behalf of her constituents.

Ward has built strong support in Arizona and her name is being mentioned nationally as a rising star. She does acknowledge her potential fundraising disadvantage against the McCain machine. Conservative Republican Club of Kingman President Larry Schiff says Ward has been underestimated in the past and he’s not counting her out. “She has become much, much better known than anyone else from this area in Phoenix, and I have often heard of her described as a rising star,” Schiff told the Kingman Daily Miner. McCain spent approximately $24 million when he won his fifth term in 2010, using money left over from his 2008 Presidential bid. According the Schiff, Ward will need $10 million to have a chance.

During the miraculous 2014 GOP House primary in Virginia, David Brat shocked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by defeating him despite being outspent $5.7 million to $231,000. It was the largest House primary upset in generations and Brat did this with no support from national groups like Club for Growth and Heritage Action.

Eric Cantor ignored his base, treated his constituents with disdain and displayed a massive ego. That sounds strikingly similar to the five-term Senator from Arizona who gets booed, censured and has his own party turn their backs on him while he speaks.

Many media outlets attributed Cantor's loss to immigration reform or his support of amnesty, but that is not the case. Senior Editor at The Daily Caller, Christopher Bedford, summed up the true deciding factor: Grassroots Anger at a Washington power player meddling in Virginia politics with a heavy hand and a disregard for his base.

"Attempts by the Cantor team and other establishment Republicans in Virginia to bully, exclude and defeat grassroots conservatives in his district and elsewhere that made his defeat essential to send a message to Washington,” conservative Virginia activist and writer Mark FitzGibbons told The Daily Caller.

Never underestimate the power of "grassroots anger". There is no shortage of that right now in Arizona.

Dr. Ward was a recent guest on #RedNationRising Radio:


Article originally published at Examiner.com

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