John McCain, Debbie Wasserman Schultz face tough primary elections Tuesday

John McCain faces a tough primary fight
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Voters go to the polls Tuesday in Florida and Arizona, and two powerful incumbents — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — face unusually strong primary challenges. McCain is expected to survive a long-shot bid to unseat him by State Sen. Kelli Ward (R), but is hoping for a big enough win to assuage doubts about his general election fight against Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, a moderate Democrat with national party backing who is competitive with McCain in the polls. With the volatile electorate, and a GOP base that chose Donald Trump, McCain is expecting a clear win but bracing for a tighter-than-expected result. That has led to talk of this being the fight of his political life, which daughter Meghan McCain shot down on Twitter.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.