Thread: Senator Jeff Flake Will Not Seek 2018 Senate Re-Election

Jeff Flake Mourns: ‘Traditional Conservative’ That Values Immigration, Free Trade Can’t Win

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AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

by CHARLIE SPIERING24 Oct 2017


Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced his decision to retire from the Senate rather than seek re-election in 2018, citing the new tone and political values that President Donald Trump brought to Washington, DC, as the reason.


“When the next generation asks us, ‘Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up?’ What are we going to say?” Flake said sorrowfully as he stood up in the Senate for his announcement. “Mr. President, I rise today to say, enough.”


Flake said that he no longer could serve as a conservative in a party that no longer valued free trade or immigration.

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative, who believes in limited government and free markets, devoted to free trade, pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party,” Flake said, his voice trembling with emotion.


He added that under Trump, American world leadership is endangered and the long-standing principles of Democracy have been shattered.

“I rise today with no small measure of regret,” he said. “Regret because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics.”

Flake spoke repeatedly about his principles, complaining that they did not align with Trump’s agenda. But his biggest complaint was that Trump had coarsened the political dialogue.


“It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end,” he said, criticizing the phrase “the new normal” to describe Trump’s behavior in Washington, DC.


He said that the ongoing destruction of established norms in the Senate was “appalling.”


“If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us,” he said.



http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...rade-cant-win/

Last polls I saw he was going to lose to Dr. Kelli Ward anyway. Yes, too bad he just doesn't want to resign. Bye bye....

SURPRISE: Jeff Flake calls it quits

Posted October 24, 2017 03:18 PM by Chris Pandolfo

Senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection to the U.S. Senate in 2018.

Citing “nastiness” in politics as a reason for his retirement, Flake told the Arizona Republic that "there may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party."

Flake cited support for President Trump’s agenda among Republican primary voters as a reason he is leaving.

"Here's the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I'm not willing to take, and that I can't in good conscience take," Flake said. "It would require me to believe in positions I don't hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone."

Though, the real reason Flake is leaving probably has something to do with histanking poll numbers in Arizona. If he stayed in the race, he likely would lose to primary challenger Dr. Kelli Ward.
Ward is now running unopposed for the GOP nomination for Senate in Arizona. But Ward comes with baggage that might convince other conservatives to jump in the race.

Recently, two of Ward’s top campaign aides quit the campaign, calling their efforts to legitimize Ward’s candidacy a “mistake,” and suggesting that Ward is cozying up to figures from the D.C. swamp to become a senator.

“After running her campaign, we’ve realized that our successful efforts to legitimize her campaign was a mistake,” said former Ward press secretary Jennifer Lawrence last week.

“Her campaign was such a disaster that we saw an opportunity to prove how much we can help struggling campaigns and we did just that,” said Dustin Stockton, a former Breitbart News writer and Ward’s former Chief Strategist. “Unfortunately, she showed that she isn’t up to the task of standing up to the pressure that causes so many candidates to betray voters when they get to Washington.”

On Twitter, Stockton suggested that Ward has sold out for her own ambition.

Joel Griffith @joelgriffith

Former @kelliwardaz chief strategist @DustinStockton says "She will set anything aside in order to pursue her own ambition.”#AZSen

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Dustin Stockton @DustinStockton

People, ideas, principles, laws.....
12:16 AM - Oct 20, 2017

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With Flake’s exit however, the race for the GOP Senate nomination in Arizona is Ward’s to lose.

Article: https://www.conservativereview.com/a...calls-it-quits