Pardoned ex-sheriff to run for Senate
Trump ally Arpaio plans primary bid at replacing Flake
Joe Arpaio, the longtime Phoenix-area sheriff whose headline-grabbing approach to immigration made him an ally of President Donald Trump, will run in the 2018 Republican primary to replace Sen. Jeff Flake.
Arpaio, 85, made the bid official in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
“I’m not here to get my name in the paper,” he said. “I get that everyday, anyway.”
Flake, R-Ariz., said he wasn’t sure that the former sheriff would even stay in the race.
“Write about it now, because it won’t last long,” he said.
Arpaio, who has frequently talked about seeking higher office, said he decided to run as a “big supporter of President Trump” who would back the president wholeheartedly. He is entering a primary against Kelli Ward, a former state senator also running as a Trump ally.
The former sheriff’s decision came as a surprise to some Democrats, who thought Arpaio’s career had ended in 2016. After 24 years as Maricopa County’s chief law enforcement officer, Arpaio was handily defeated by Democrat Paul Penzone.
Eight months later, Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt for having ignored a judge’s order to stop detaining immigrants simply because he suspected that they lacked legal status. But he had an ally in Trump, who had campaigned alongside Arpaio.
Within weeks of the conviction, Trump granted Arpaio a full and unconditional pardon — the first of his presidency.
Democrats cried foul, and dozens of them filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to stop the pardon.