By Joseph Flaherty | Phoenix New Times
After teasing a campaign for months, former Arizona attorney general Grant Woods announced he will not run against Senator Martha McSally in 2020.
In an interview on Friday morning with KTAR 92.3 FM, Woods, a Republican-turned-Democrat who has become a critic of President Donald Trump, said that if he ran for the Senate seat, he could expect to face “a big-time, expensive, competitive primary.”
He has “zero interest” in fighting Democrats, Woods told hosts Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes. “The Democrats are not the problem right now,” Woods added.
Woods served as Arizona’s top law enforcement official from 1991 to 1999 as a Republican. Before his run for attorney general, at the age of 28, Woods became John McCain’s first chief of staff when the late senator was a congressman.
He switched his party affiliation to officially register as a Democrat last November, and endorsed Kyrsten Sinema in her successful 2018 campaign against McSally for retiring senator Jeff Flake’s seat.
