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Sen. John McCain fends off challenger in Arizona primary

 
Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, leave a polling station after voting Tuesday in Phoenix.
Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, leave a polling station after voting Tuesday in Phoenix.
Published Aug. 31, 2016

PHOENIX — Primary challenges to two of the state's longest-serving Republicans drew attention as Arizona voters headed to the polls Tuesday.

Sen. John McCain faced a tough battle with a former state senator who vowed to retire the five-term Republican a day after his 80th birthday. And six-term Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was facing a trio of challengers in his primary.

In early poll results, both McCain and Arpaio were declared winners in their respective races.

McCain has been campaigning hard in recent weeks and made one last stop Monday at a Phoenix fire station before meeting with campaign workers to urge them to make a final push to victory. The 2008 GOP presidential nominee faced off against former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who lagged in the polls but mounted an aggressive primary challenge.

Ward has been mainly ignored by McCain, who is looking to November when he will go head-to-head with a well-funded Democrat in Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Meanwhile, Arpaio was seeking a seventh term with a war chest of more than $10 million. He was hoping voters ignored a federal judge's recent order referring him for criminal contempt of court charges. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow's Aug. 19 ruling came in a long-running case where the sheriff acknowledged he failed to stop his signature immigration patrols despite Snow's order to halt them.

He fended off three Republican challengers: former Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban, retired sheriff's Deputy Wayne Baker and Marsha Hill, former commander of a sheriff's volunteer group. A Democratic challenger, Paul Penzone, awaits in November for Arpaio.

McCain's main challenger made his age and vitality an issue, questioning his ability to serve another six-year term.

"I'll let the people of Arizona who know me very well make that judgment," McCain said.

Ward cast the race as a David and Goliath battle, one that "David won."

"The overwhelming message is it is time for Sen. McCain to retire and it's time for new blood to go into Washington, D.C., and the people overwhelmingly want to vote for Kelli Ward," she said in a recent interview.

McCain has been dogged with questions about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has made comments that drew the senator's ire, and even questioned McCain's status as a war hero because he was a prisoner of war. McCain has nonetheless stood by Trump.