Jan. 24 (UPI) — The Arizona Republican Party on Sunday voted to censure three members who notably broke with former President Donald Trump including opposing his efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s election win in the state.
The party passed three resolutions censuring Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the wife of late Arizona Sen. John McCain, for what it described as a series of “failures.”
Ducey was censured over his decision to implement rules and restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the GOP said “restrict personal liberties and force compliance to unconstitutional edicts.”
The party penalized McCain, who endorsed Biden for president, saying that she “has supported globalist policies and candidates” and “condemned President Trump for his criticism of her husband and erroneously placed behaviors over actual presidential results.”
The party suggested that Flake, who chose not to run for re-election for his Senate seat, join the Democratic Party after saying he “condemned the Republican Party, rejected populism and rejected the interests of the American people over globalist interests.”
Sunday’s session also saw Kelli Ward narrowly win re-election as party chair after playing a message from Trump who told members he gave her his “complete and total endorsement” and embracing Trump’s campaign slogan as she ended her speech by saying “Make America Great Again!”
Sara Mueller, Ducey’s political director, dismissed the censure as an insignificant matter.
“These resolutions are of no consequence whatsoever and the people behind them have lost whatever little moral authority they may have once had,” she said.
Cindy McCain, referencing the fact that her husband had been censured by the party, said she would wear the designation as a “badge of honor.”
“It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well … and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP,” she wrote on Twitter.
Flake posted a photo of the trio at Biden’s inauguration with the caption “Good company.”
“If condoning President Trump’s behavior is required to stay in AZGOP’s good graces, I’m just fine being on the outs,” he also wrote on Twitter.
