The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●AZ-Sen: Immediately after GOP Sen. Jeff Flake announced his retirement on Tuesday, speculation began about which Arizona Republicans would run for his seat. Ex-state Sen. Kelli Ward, who lost the primary to John McCain 51-40 last year, has been running for months, and polls showed her badly beating Flake, who had alienated many primary voters with his public criticism of Trump. Ward remains in the race, but she'll likely have a much tougher time catching on now that she's just another candidate rather than the hated Flake's main rival, especially since she is a poor fundraiser.
Campaign ActionWith Flake gone, a batch of new Republicans started making noises about running. Attention immediately turned to Rep. Martha McSally, who represents a competitive Tucson seat. McSally is a very strong fundraiser who has experience with tough races, and while a Senate bid would likely give Democrats a much better shot at her House seat, Senate Republicans wouldn't mind that trade. McSally has said nothing publicly, but a source close to her told the Washington Examiner that she was "being bombarded by supporters to consider." The Examiner also wrote that McSally's team was "expected to run the traps on a possible bid."
Rep. Trent Franks, a member of the nihilistic Freedom Caucus, told the Examiner that he was considering, adding, "If the objective for me were to become a U.S. senator ... this would be an excellent time to do that. I don't know what the future holds, maybe there would be another time, but I'm just going to see who else decides to look at it for now." Franks eyed this race in 2012 and even reportedly was about to announce he was in, but he reversed course at the very last second. Back when Flake was running for re-election in late August, Franks reportedly met with Trump and a few other state Republicans and agreed that ex-state party chair Robert Graham was the most likely member of the group to challenge the incumbent, though things may have changed now that Flake is on his way out.
Rep. David Schweikert, another Freedom Caucuser, said on Wednesday that, while he wasn't ruling it out, "there is not a burning desire to do that; there just isn't." But Schweikert played all sorts of games last cycle when he sounded very unlikely to challenge McCain, only to reportedly start looking at the race again. Ex-Rep. Matt Salmon, a far-right bomb-thrower who helped pressure John Boehner to leave the speakership, also spent last cycle considering a McCain challenge before he just decided to retire. Salmon has said nothing about this seat yet, but a source close to him told The Hill he was "still digesting everything."