McCain donors flip to Mark Kelly over Republican incumbent in key Arizona Senate race
by Naomi Lim
| September 20, 2019 12:00 AM
Democrat Mark Kelly is receiving a boost for his Senate campaign from an unexpected source: campaign donors to the late Republican Sen. John McCain, who held the Arizona seat for more than 30 years.
In backing Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the contributors are effectively snubbing McCain's GOP successor, Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat in December 2018 after losing to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. McSally must win the November 2020 special election for the right to serve out the final two years of McCain’s term.
While McSally, 53, still has McCain donors on her books, the crossover giving is, in a sense, an extension of bad blood between her and the McCain family, some of whom were none too pleased at her appointment by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Reginald Ballantyne, who sat on McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign’s Arizona finance team, doled out the maximum amount of $5,400 for his 2016 Senate primary and general election. Ballantyne has, as of last month, given Kelly’s primary and general senatorial campaigns $4,000, but nothing to McSally's.
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