The Republican Party of Arizona will vote on a measure to censor Cindy McCain, Senator John McCain’s widow, on January 23, in part because of her support for President-elect Joe Biden and same-sex marriage.
The proposal, which aims to “dissolve any connections” between McCain and the state’s Republican Party, says it “supported causes of the left, such as gay marriage, growth of the administrative state and others that go against Republican values, a republican form of government and the US Constitution. ”
It also claims that McCain did not support conservative Republicans like President Donald Trump and instead supported “globalist policies and candidates” like Biden. “Cindy McCain condemned President Trump for his criticisms of her husband and misconstrued the actual presidential outcome,” the proposal said.
McCain did not immediately respond to NBC News’s request for comment.
She told Arizona Central on Tuesday, however, that she is not surprised “by the continued insults and personal attacks by Arizona GOP President Kelli Ward”.
Ward is a former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged John McCain in the Senate Republican primaries in 2016. McCain won his sixth term. He died two years after brain cancer.
“As president of AZGOP, she managed to make Arizona blue in November for the first time since 1996,” said Cindy McCain of Ward. “Perhaps she should be reminded that my husband has never lost an election in Arizona since his first victory in 1982.”
McCain then tweeted the Central Arizona article, writing: “Future Republican candidates really need to question whether the party’s current leadership represents its philosophy and values. It’s time to take a self-exam at the Arizona GOP. “
McCain’s proposal for censorship by the Arizona Republican Party follows a similar proposal that Republicans from Maricopa County debated during a committee meeting on Saturday. That resolution was originally intended only for former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who endorsed Biden last year. During the meeting, Republican Party state official Walt Steiner suggested adding McCain to the censorship proposal, and the crowd applauded in response, according to Central Arizona.
The measure to censor Flake was passed. But the state Republican Party then tweeted that Maricopa County could not censor McCain because of a rule that prohibited amendments to plenary resolutions.
In addition to voting on McCain’s proposed censorship on January 23, the state party is expected to re-elect Ward as president, according to Central Arizona.
Over a decade of LGBTQ support
Cindy McCain has publicly supported same-sex marriage since 2010, when she posed for a photo for the NOH8 Campaign, a group that advocates gay marriage.
Following public support from his wife and daughter, John McCain released a statement saying that, while respecting his family’s views, he was still opposed to gay marriage. At the time, even President Barack Obama had not publicly supported marriage equality, which did not become legal in the U.S. until 2015.
Less than a year after her initial photo shoot for NOH8, Cindy McCain appeared in a public service ad for the group calling for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t say”, a federal policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the US armed forces. The policy was eventually revoked and officially ended in September 2011.
In 2013, McCain petitioned her husband to support the Non-Discrimination at Work Act, a bill that would prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. John McCain ended up voting in favor of the bill – one of only 10 senators to do so – but it did not pass.
That same year, the senator opposed protections for LGBTQ people in immigration reform, but in an interview with Salon, his wife said he was slowly changing his mind about issues related to LGBTQ rights.
“I think he is changing,” she said. “My husband and I have diverged on many issues over the years. … I think that in the future, we will see our country changing … I know he believes in what is right.”
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