Can Jeff Flake survive the role of chief Republican antagonist to Trump? – Washington Post
PRESCOTT, Ariz. Over two months, Sen. Jeff Flake has dodged bullets on a baseball field, buried his elderly father and watched one of his political mentors, Sen. John McCain, battle terminal brain cancer.
And that was all before he published a book that doubles down on his criticisms of President Trump, which in less than two weeks since its release has once again put him at odds with members of his own party.
The best-selling book may make Flake (Ariz.) the most high-profile Republican casualty of the Trump era. Or, he may prove that embracing ones core principles can still be appealing to voters.
He was already facing a primary challenge from a nationalist who campaigns with sharp-edged, Trump-style bombast when his party launched a revolt against his 160-page critique on the president. On Friday, a Democratic congresswoman who has a sizable campaign war chest also signaled that she is likely to run against Flake.
For now, he is laughing off his newfound challenges.
Its been quite a summer, it really has, he said after meeting with business executives here, explaining later, We knew from the beginning that wed have a tough primary, wed have a tough general election.
Confronted with the challenge, Flake added, You just do it.
That approach helps explain his new book, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. Not even his closest political advisers knew that hed been working on the book for more than a year. After its Aug. 1 release, the book quickly jumped on to the New York Times bestseller list although a far funnier, less serious tome by a colleague, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), currently outranks him.
Page after page, Flake lobs strong broadsides against Trump, like how he wooed voters with easy answers to hard questions, sweetened by free stuff basically alate-night infomercial that wasfree of significant thought.
Flake became heartsick, he said, as Republicans embraced Trump. Now, theresmore nastiness and dysfunction in the elections wake, he writes.
But the challenges Flake faced in recent months helped temper some of that nastiness and dysfunction, at least temporarily.
In mid-June, Flake was on the baseball field in Alexandria, Va., when House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot. After ducking out of the line of fire, Flake ran onto the field to help treat a wounded congressional aide and Scalise.Congress quickly resumed its duties after the shooting, and Flake has taken time to reflect on what happened.
When the volley of shots rang out, I remember turning to the dugout and seeing where I had to run and bullets hitting the gravel, he said. And I just remember for some reason the thought just seemed to last awhile but:Why?Us?Here? It just seemed so incongruent, and I still have a hard time understanding how somebody can look out at a bunch of middle-aged men playing baseball and see the enemy.
Flake acknowledged the irony of being the target of a political assassination attempt while he was putting the finishing touches on a book that conveys his worry about how the coarse nature of modern politics could spark violence.
Its just its just got to stop, he said.
Less than two weeks after the shooting and just after his book went to print Flakes 85-year-old father died, and the Arizonans absence further stalled the Senates consideration of a GOP health-care overhaul plan. Without Flake, it was impossible for Republicans to hold a procedural vote to advance the bill.
Flake quickly returned to Washington, but then another life event interrupted the health-care debate the unexpected cancer diagnosis of McCain, who eventually derailed the bill by blocking further consideration of it. In the final minutes before McCains dramatic late-night vote against the measure, Flake tried one last time on the Senate floor to persuade his senior colleague to support the bill.
It didnt work and then Flake released his book.
Now, the most partisan of Arizona Republicans believe that Flake despite supporting the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and supporting Trumps judicial and Cabinet nominees is among those most responsible for blocking Trumps legislative agenda. They dont like that he supported a bipartisan immigration plan in 2013, flew to Cuba at President Barack Obamas request to help relaunch diplomatic relations in 2014 and supports global trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Flake model is you have to be conservative every six years, saidConstantin Querard, a conservative Republican campaign consultant based in Phoenix who does not support Flake.
What is unusual from the break in his normal behavior is that this time, instead of campaigning as a conservative that conservatives would recognize, hes chosen to redefine it and tell all the conservatives that theyre wrong and not really conservatives and that hes not only a conservative but hes going to teach us what conservatism is, Querard said. And he just doesnt have any credibility among the grass roots to attempt that.
Thats why Kelli Ward believes she has a chance to defeat Flake. An osteopathic physician and former state lawmaker, Ward tried and failed to defeat McCain in a primary two years ago by making his age an issue. This time, she will use Flakes dislike of Trump against him in a state that supported the president last year by 3.5 points.
Ward is unapologetically strident in her approach, embracing the tone and temperament that Flake repeatedly abhors in his book and describes as a shatter politics. She recently sent a fundraisingletter to supporters with envelopes emblazoned with the widely rebuked image of comedian Kathy Griffin posing with what appears to be Trumps severed head.
Inside the envelope, Ward wrote that she used the image because, its important to see what were up against.
In an interview, Ward said that Flakes national television interviews to promote the book are helping her. Every time hes on, Im gaining money and manpower.
While she won nearly 40 percent of the primary electorate in 2016, Ward says her support will grow this year because of Flakes decision to lash out at Trump. Much of her financial support comes from out of state, she said, because Republican voterswant somebody that is strong with a backbone, with a brain who will go do the job.
Did she mean to suggest that Flake has no backbone or brain?
You said it, Ward said. I dont think that Jeff Flake has represented his values dont align with those of his constituents.
Trump has vowed that Flake will lose his reelection fight next year, and some of his allies are falling in line behind Ward. On Friday, she hired consultantsEric Beach and Brent Lowder, who in 2016 ran the Great America PAC, which spent nearly $30 million to back Trump. And a super PAC launched to support her bid recently picked up a $300,000 donation fromRobert Mercer, the secretive billionaire who supported Trumps campaign.
But Ryan ODaniel, who managed McCains 2016 reelection campaign, said that Flake faces a political dynamic similar to the one that McCain faced two years ago. Despite Wards concerns, Flake is likely to earn the support of national conservative groups because of his solid conservative voting record, he said.
Hes always fought against earmarks and for smaller government, so its going to be very hard for anyone to out-conservative Jeff Flake in this primary, ODaniel said. Especially somebody who doesnt have the positive name ID, infrastructure or money.
Democrats, meanwhile, might have caught a break in their bid to unseat Flake. On Friday, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who represents a Phoenix-area district, said in a statement that she is seriously considering entering the race, and several Democrats now think she is all but certain to run.
Despite coming up short in statewide races since 2010, Democratic leaders think that Sinemas moderate voting record and $3million campaign war chest can help them capitalize on the growing anti-Trump and anti-Washington sentiment among voters.
As he travels the state this month, Flake is eager to remind voters about his book and that despite its content, he does occasionally agree with Trump.
I havent always agreed with this administration. Theres a book out there, he said during the meeting with business leaders. He explained that hesmore than pleased with how the Trump administration is handling regulatory issues and how the Environmental Protection Agency is now working to ease Obama-era federal oversight of western lands.
In an interview afterward, Flake noted that after being elected to the House in 2000, he opposed George W. Bushs No Child Left Behind education bill and his Medicare prescription-drug benefit plan. But I was with him on other things.
The situation with Trump is the same, he said. You shouldnt be a rubber stamp. I think thats what Arizona voters expect of me.
Or, as Flake writes in his book,We must be willing to risk our careers to save our principles.
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Can Jeff Flake survive the role of chief Republican antagonist to Trump? - Washington Post