Arizona candidate: Political correctness like ‘cancer’

Tweet 2 days after McCain’s death

WASHINGTON— Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward appeared to taunt Sen. John McCain in a tweet just two days after the longtime senator died of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.

“Political correctness is like a cancer!” Ms. Ward, a former state senator who is locked in Arizona’s heated GOP primary to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, tweeted Monday.

The Arizona Senate primary is Tuesday. It comes on the same day as a governor’s contest in Florida.

Mr. McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and senator since 1987, died Saturday after a 13-month battle with the illness.

His family announced Friday he would discontinue his medical treatment, saying “the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict.”

Ms. Ward drew criticism for speculating that Mr. McCain timed that release to redirect media attention away from her campaign, which had kicked off its bus tour that same day.

One of her staffers posted on Facebook that Mr. McCain’s family made the announcement to slight Ms. Ward.

Ms. Ward unsuccessfully challenged Mr. McCain in 2016, losing by 13 points, but capturing 39 percent of the vote.

She is locked in a three-way GOP primary battle with Rep. Martha McSally and Joe Arpaio, the former Phoenix-area sheriff who received a pardon from President Donald Trump after his conviction for contempt of court.