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Sen. John McCain Faces Toughest Re-Election Yet

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Arizona Republican John McCain has served in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, but he's facing both a primary challenge to his right and an aggressive Democratic opponent, making this one of his toughest re-election campaigns. Joining us now is KJZZ's Jude Joffe-Block to talk about that race. So, Jude, what exactly is John McCain up against?

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK, BYLINE: McCain is caught in a crunch running two campaigns simultaneously. Arizona's primary is on Tuesday, and his leading challenger is Dr. Kelli Ward, an anti-establishment Republican. She's aligned with the tea party. One of her major points of attack is that McCain is not tough enough on illegal immigration, too often has worked across the aisle. But anything McCain does to fight Ward's attacks could be used against him in the general election in November.

WERTHEIMER: The primary's on Tuesday, as you mentioned. The campaign has turned negative. What are these guys saying about each other?

JOFFE-BLOCK: Kelli Ward, in this last stretch, has started attacking McCain on his age. This is from an interview she did with KJZZ last week.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KELLI WARD: John McCain's been there for so long and, you know, he's getting ready to celebrate his 80th birthday on August 29. And I want to and the people that I'm meeting with across the state want to give him a great gift for that birthday - the gift of retirement.

JOFFE-BLOCK: And she's actually gone even further, saying he's weak, suggesting he could die in office. And one of McCain's toughest attacks back on Ward has been trying to link her to conspiracy theories, particularly one about chem trails, that airplanes are secretly spraying dangerous chemicals. That's because, in 2014, Ward held a town hall where constituents voiced concerns about these chem trails. She's said she doesn't believe in the theory. But friends of John McCain put out this video spot.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Chem trail Kelli - bad judgement - too dangerous for Arizona.

JOFFE-BLOCK: So it's gotten nasty in this race.

WERTHEIMER: John McCain and Donald Trump had a very public feud, although each has unenthusiastically endorsed each other. Has Trump had an impact on this race?

JOFFE-BLOCK: Trump has had everything to do with the dynamic of this race and how it's shaking out. So it's no secret Trump and McCain don't get along. There was that incident where Trump seemed to mock McCain for being a prisoner of war, at one point even threatened not to endorse him, though he ultimately did. McCain has continued to say he'll support the nominee, but Ann Kirkpatrick is trying hard to use that against McCain by trying to tie him to Trump as much as she can. That's his Democratic challenger. She's counting on trying to ride a big anti-Trump backlash with the help of Latino and Native American voters in November. But whenever McCain has criticized Trump or distanced himself, he has the primary challenger, Kelli Ward, pouncing and attacking him for not supporting Trump enough.

WERTHEIMER: You said John McCain is running two campaigns at once, and that's true right down to what the voters are seeing in their mailboxes, am I right?

JOFFE-BLOCK: That's right. There was a mailer sent out recently by a pro-McCain PAC. In one version sent out to voters, there's a photo of Trump and Pence, and it boasts about Trump's endorsement of McCain. But a different version of the exact same mailer was sent out to a different set of voters, this time without Trump on it, and instead replaced his photo with Mitt Romney and Jeff Flake, two Republican Mormons who've criticized Trump. It seems that that flyer might have been sent out to Mormon areas of the state where Trump's numbers aren't so good. For now, it's suggesting from polls that McCain should win this primary against Kelli Ward. The much tougher race is likely to be this fall where polls suggest it could be a neck-and-neck contest with the Democratic challenger. A lot is going to depend on turnout in November and especially whether younger Latino voters come out, whether they come out to vote against Trump in big numbers, and how that will impact the Senate race.

WERTHEIMER: Jude Joffe-Block of station KJZZ in Phoenix, thank you.

JOFFE-BLOCK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.