Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Arizona this week, where he will appear alongside vulnerable incumbent Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz) at events in Phoenix, Scottsdale and near Tucson.
Pence arrives in Phoenix on Wednesday, where he will appear at a “McSally Victory” fundraiser to try and boost McSally’s re-election campaign. McSally is facing off against a primary challenger, Daniel McCarthy, who has positioned himself as staunch conservative to McSally’s right. He has also, notably, compared himself to Jesus and pushed to annex Mexico.
Pence will also work to support McSally’s campaign by joining her in a roundtable discussion with Latino leaders at a Scottsdale church on Thursday. Pence will then close out his trip by appearing at the Caterpillar Tinaja Hills training center in Green Valley, just south of Tucson, where he will discuss the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement before returning to Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening.
The Arizona Democratic Party criticized Pence’s visit and support of McSally, “It’s no surprise that the Vice President is making a fundraising trip to bail out unelected Sen. Martha McSally,” spokesman Brad Bainum said in a statement. “From repeatedly voting to gut preexisting condition coverage protections to backing tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, McSally has proven that she puts her party first in Washington.”
McSally has not been shy about tying herself to Trump, with whom she’s voted 95.8% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Assuming she survives McCarthy’s primary challenge, McSally is likely to need all the help she can get, as she will face a tough challenge from the presumptive Democratic nominee, Mark Kelly. An August 2019 poll from OH Predictive Insights found Kelly leading McSally by five points in a head-to-head matchup.
Pence last visited Arizona in April, when he tried to rally support for President Donald Trump’s border wall emergency declaration, which allows Trump to divert funds away from military construction projects, including $30 million from Arizona’s own Fort Huachuca, to fund his border wall.
McSally supported the emergency declaration, while Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz) did not.
There’s been talk of protesting Pence’s upcoming visit on Facebook, but no official protest has been organized as of publication.
Keya Vakil Keya is a reporter at COURIER, where he covers everything from healthcare to climate change. Prior to joining Courier Newsroom, Keya worked as a researcher in the film industry and dabbled in the political world.
