Kelli Ward draws huge, enthusiastic crowd for Senate kickoff

Vulnerable incumbent Jeff Flake plunges in polls, as he continues to bash Pres. Trump

Dr. Kelli Ward’s senate race supporters who arrived at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort Tuesday evening quickly realized that it would be a packed house as they searched for parking spots. The frustration dissipated as soon as the attendees walked through the doors to a crowded, chair-less, cavernous room full of like minded conservatives.

It was a politically rare “Wow!” moment.

Media turned out in full force to cover Ward’s kickoff event for a campaign that is generating national attention. The crowd was reminded of the races featuring establishment Republicans incumbents such as House majority leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Senator Luther Strange (R-AL), who each suffered devastating primary election upsets at the hands of a rising conservative voter base, weary of arrogant elitist politicians who renege on campaign promises made solely to win votes.

Conservative heavyweights didn’t disappoint the wall-to-wall enthusiastic crowd that cheered them on. Former Arizona Congressman and NewsMax TV host J.D. Hayworth stepped out to cheers. The featured guest, syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham, was recently tapped to join the Fox News lineup with “The Ingraham Angle.” Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Trump and executive  chairman of Breitbart News, was a rumored, but to many, a surprise addition to the lineup. He went right for the GOP establishment jugular telling the crowd, “These people hold you in complete contempt. When they attack a Donald Trump and a Dr. Kelli Ward, it’s not Donald Trump and Kelli Ward that they’re trying to shut up. It’s you they’re trying to shut up. They think you’re a group of morons.”

Dr. Kelli Ward, a family practice physician and former two-term state senator, described herself as a “Liberty loving, Constitutional conservative,” declaring, “I’m ready to go to D.C. and drain the swamp!”

Jeff Flake, a first term U.S. Senator up for reelection in 2018, has been fading fast after denigrating candidate Donald Trump and then writing a President Trump bashing pamphlet masquerading as a book with a title stolen directly from Barry Goldwater’s 1960 iconic “Conscience of a Conservative.” Title theft aside, this move illustrates Flakes disconnect with the conservative Arizona base that supported Trump by nearly 20 points. Flake was unable to draw even a small audience last year.

Numerous statewide polls show the unpopular Flake significantly trailing Ward. He barely squeaked into the senate seat left vacant by the 2013 retirement of Jon Kyl, winning by only 3 points.

Since his election, the marginal Flake has shown himself a little more than an open borders supporting self-described “globalist”— not wise positions to stake out for a charlatan trying to pass himself off as a “conservative.”

When the Ward event concluded, attendees stood in long lines to receive a copy of Laura Ingraham’s newly released book, “Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump.”

The consequences of the Aug. 28, 2018 Primary Election are not lost on Arizona conservatives.