What more could you want in a senator than Martha McSally?

If your head is swiveling, it may be because it was just last month that McSally lost a close race to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema , when she was aiming to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Hold on. Sen. Jon Kyl, whom Ducey appointed in September to fill McCain’s seat, announced last week that he would stay only until the end of the year, giving someone else a chance to be in place for 2020.
McSally brings quite a lot, including that rarest of qualities in this town — humility. In person, she is almost bashful. At a recent social event we both attended, which included a request for each person to introduce themselves with a few autobiographical notes, McSally’s introduction was the shortest. “I’m a pilot, and I like dogs,” she said.
If she has signaled too close an alignment with Trump, she can’t be accused of abandoning her principles. She’s a conservative, to be sure, and her voting record in the House reflects this. McSally voted favorably for Trump issues 97 percent of the time, compared with Sinema’s 63 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight, which calculates such things. Further, I suspect you’ll find few Republican veterans seeking office who would criticize the commander in chief. One notable exception, of course, was McCain — a maverick to the last.
Recent Posts