The new campaign manager for Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward called Kyrsten Sinema a "crazy woman" last week in a conference call with supporters.
Shawn Dow joined Ward's campaign in April. He previously served as the Arizona director for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's 2016 presidential campaign and ran Congressman David Schweikert's 2012 re-election campaign.
In the conference call on May 10, Dow spoke confidently of Ward's chances of beating Sinema in November. A Democrat who represents Congressional District 9, Sinema is the leading candidate in Arizona's Democratic U.S. Senate race.
Ignoring Ward's position in a competitive Republican primary, Dow said that the campaign had turned its attention to crushing Sinema, whom he called a "crazy woman."
“You guys can help change the whole political spectrum of this state. We have a plan in place to absolutely crush Kyrsten Sinema," Dow said on the call. "Yes, I'm moving on to that portion of the race now. We're planning and preparing for her, and we have a plan to absolutely beat her."
He encouraged people to donate on Ward's campaign website, adding, "we need to have those funds in order to defeat this crazy woman who's running against us." Supporters could join the call via a dial-in number.
Dow is a libertarian-minded activist who campaigned against photo-enforcement cameras as the director of the Arizona Campaign for Liberty.
In an emailed statement to Phoenix New Times, he doubled down on the remarks.
"Kyrsten Sinema's crazy past is well-documented," Dow said, listing Sinema's past positions.
"These examples barely scrape the surface of Sinema's anti-military, pro-socialized medicine past," Dow added. "We look forward to facing 'Crazy Sinema' in the general election and exposing her wild record."
The campaign manager of former state senator Kelli Ward, left, bashed Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema in a campaign call.
Gage Skidmore/flickr
A pro-Trump, pro-border wall, Make-America-Great-Again apostle, Ward describes herself as a "liberty-loving, constitutional conservative."
She's facing off against Congresswoman Martha McSally and the zombie campaign of former sheriff Joe Arpaio in a chaotic Republican contest for retiring Senator Jeff Flake's seat. Last month, a poll from OH Predictive Insights and ABC15 showed Ward ahead of McSally among likely GOP voters for August's primary.
A ceaseless campaigner, Ward lost her 2016 primary challenge to Senator John McCain by a double-digit margin. She's also no stranger to controversy.
The former state senator from Lake Havasu City infamously organized a 2014 forum and served as a sounding board for constituent concerns about "chemtrails," a conspiracy theory about how the government is spraying toxins (or heavy metals, or something) into the atmosphere from planes.
Former Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka have stumped for Ward in Arizona.
When Dow turned the phone over to Ward last Thursday, she thanked him for his management of the campaign before talking about her recent trip to the border.
"We're so happy to have him as the campaign manager — that's a new position for him," Ward said. "And he's got lots of experience here in Arizona."
