PHOENIX (AP) — Jimmy McCain, son of former Arizona Senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, a valuable show of support for the Democratic candidate in a swing state.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, is scheduled to speak outside Phoenix on Wednesday at a rally organized by the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, which, as a committed arm of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, played a key role in re-establishing the Republican Party in Arizona.
Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s appearance at Turning Point USA reflect the different segments of Republicans that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to conventional conservatives disillusioned with Trump’s rise to power in the Republican Party, while Republicans are trying to solidify their base and get their newborn supporters to vote.
In Arizona, a former Republican stronghold that regularly supported McCain and other Republicans in presidential elections, Democrats have made great progress over the past six years with an anti-Trump coalition of Republicans and conservative independents.
That reality is evident in each campaign’s approach to winning the state. Harris, in contrast to the progressive stances she outlined in her 2020 Democratic primary, has staked out moderate positions, including on the border, a major issue in this border state, while simultaneously winning over Republican supporters.
Trump, meanwhile, is counting on the support of newborn voters who are dissuaded from politics and distrustful of institutions. He chose Phoenix for a joint rally with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his own independent campaign to support Trump.
The Turning Point event at which Vance spoke was aimed at promoting the group’s “Chase the Vote” initiative to identify supporters who may need an extra push and encourage them to participate. The event, at a megachurch on the outskirts of metropolitan Phoenix, began with a concert by a Christian rock band with bulky, seat-shaking bass and a colorful airy show.
Jimmy McCain said he has been an independent since leaving the Republican Party after Trump became its standard-bearer in 2016. During a nine-month overseas deployment that just ended, he decided to switch his registration to Democratic and announce it publicly. His decision was first reported by CNN.
He said he was made even more “outraged” by the decision after watching Trump’s campaign visit to Arlington National Cemetery. Harris called the visit a “political stunt” that “disrespected sacred ground.”
Relations between Trump and the McCain family have been strained since he belittled the senator’s status as a war hero during the 2016 election campaign.
Jimmy McCain said it was arduous for him personally to hear his father being disrespected, but added that his father chose a public life and Americans are allowed to criticize their politicians.
“At Arlington, the people buried there gave their lives and made the ultimate sacrifice,” McCain said. “You don’t get a political opinion. … We don’t know what those people felt, thought, believed. We know they believed in their country, and that’s it.”
Trump said he was invited to Arlington by the families of Marines killed in a suicide bombing during the confused U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. His campaign released statements from the relatives accusing Harris of playing politics on the issue.
“There has been no greater advocate for our brave soldiers than President Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary. During his tenure in the White House, he secured novel investments in the military and pay raises for the troops, and no novel wars have broken out, she said.
Jimmy McCain, 36, enlisted in the U.S. Marines as a teenager and served for four years. He was later re-enlisted in the Army National Guard and promoted to officer. He currently holds the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Ideologically, McCain described himself as a moderate politician, citing his father’s 2008 campaign slogan: “Country First.”
“I am a centrist who cares about his country more than anything else,” McCain said.
Cindy McCain, the late senator’s widow, endorsed President Joe Biden shortly before the 2020 election, a vote of confidence that helped the Democrat win a narrow victory in Arizona with the support of Republicans dissatisfied with Trump. Biden appointed McCain as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, where she is now executive director of the United Nations World Food Program.
John McCain, a Marine pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held captive for over five years, refusing to be released in front of other American soldiers.
Trump said of McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic opposition to repealing Obama’s health care reform.
McCain represented Arizona in Congress for 31 years until his death from an aggressive brain tumor in 2018. He earned a national reputation as an “outsider” willing to defy his party. Although he sometimes faced criticism from the GOP base and faced fierce challengers in the primaries, he was overwhelmingly re-elected and remains a popular figure in the state.
