Kelli Ward is an American politician who served as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party from 2019 to 2023.
37 Facts About Kelli Ward
2.
Kelli Ward previously served in the Arizona State Senate from 2013 to 2015.
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Kelli Ward challenged incumbent Senator John McCain in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in 2016.
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Kelli Ward ran in the 2018 Republican primary election for the US Senate, initially against Jeff Flake, and then against Martha McSally, after Flake's decision not to seek re-election.
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Kelli Ward became chair of the Arizona Republican Party in 2019.
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Kelli Ward then filed lawsuits seeking to nullify the state's election results.
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Kelli Ward was born Kelli Kaznoski in Fairmont, West Virginia.
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Kelli Ward graduated from Bridgeport High School in 1987, as the class valedictorian.
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Kelli Ward won the November 6,2012 general election with 49,613 votes against Democratic nominee Beth Weiser, who had run for a Senate seat in 2010.
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When Kelli Ward ran for re-election in November 2014, she was unopposed in both the primary and the general election.
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On July 14,2015, Kelli Ward announced she would be entering the race for the Republican nomination for US Senate in Arizona, against long-time incumbent John McCain, who was viewed by many political analysts as a top target of the Tea Party movement and by other Republican conservatives.
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On December 2,2015, Kelli Ward announced that per Arizona's resign-to-run laws, she would resign from the state senate, effective December 15, in order to dedicate her time to running for the US Senate.
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On July 11,2016, Kelli Ward published an ad on her Facebook page saying that John McCain, her primary opponent for the 2016 Republican primary Senate election, was too friendly with Secretary Hillary Clinton.
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The ad was an identical copy of a 2008 ad published by then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, except that Kelli Ward replaced Romney's approval message at the end of the video with her own.
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In October 2016, Kelli Ward announced that she would run in the 2018 Republican primary against incumbent Senator Jeff Flake.
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Kelli Ward criticized Flake for being "an open-borders, amnesty globalist," describing herself as "a build-the-wall, stop-illegal-immigration Americanist".
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Arpaio and Kelli Ward were considered in contention for the same group of primary voters, as they are both highly conservative and staunchly pro-Trump, whereas McSally has a more moderate record.
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In July 2017, after McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer, Kelli Ward said that she hoped that McCain would resign as quickly as possible.
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Kelli Ward expressed her support for Trump's pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt of court.
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Also in that month, a video attack ad appeared accusing Ward of agreeing with the chemtrails conspiracy theory and referring to her as "Chemtrail Kelli".
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Politifact rated the claim that Kelli Ward "hosted a town hall on 'chemtrail conspiracy theories' and is open to sponsoring chemtrails legislation" as "mostly false," and factcheck.
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In October 2017, Kelli Ward was formally endorsed by former Senior Counselor to the President Steve Bannon in her 2018 campaign.
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Kelli Ward was endorsed by Great America PAC, which has been described as "an arm of Team Bannon".
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Bannon has said he believes Kelli Ward will help build a wall on the southern border of the US and repeal the Affordable Care Act.
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Kelli Ward later attempted to distance herself from Bannon in the aftermath of Bannon's public falling-out with Trump, whose endorsement Kelli Ward sought, according to The Arizona Republic.
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In May 2018, Arpaio accused Kelli Ward of having enticed him to bow out of the Republican primary in exchange for lucrative speaking gigs with a pro-Trump group; the Kelli Ward campaign denied the accusation.
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The primary was described as "contentious", with Kelli Ward refusing to say whether she would support McSally in the general election were she to win the Republican nomination.
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Kelli Ward praised Nehlen when he unsuccessfully sought to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016.
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Kelli Ward appeared together with Nehlen on a number of occasions.
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Kelli Ward's husband, who was a campaign surrogate, has promoted conspiracy theories about Seth Rich, Bill and Hillary Clinton murdering people, and John McCain cooperating with the Islamic State.
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When Kelli Ward was asked if she agreed with Cernovich's beliefs, she said that she didn't know much about his views.
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In 2019, Kelli Ward was elected chair of Arizona Republican Party on a campaign platform of the Republican Party of Arizona supporting Republican presidential incumbent Donald Trump in 2020.
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Kelli Ward was reelected to the position in January 2021 by a margin of 42 votes in the second round of voting.
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Kelli Ward told protestors to dress up in scrubs and medical gear to imitate health care workers.
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In 2021, Kelli Ward pushed false claims about the Arizona election in 2020.
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Kelli Ward fought a January 6 committee subpoena of her phone records to the United States Supreme Court, which denied her challenge in November 2022.
37.
Kelli Ward then appeared before the committee but pleaded the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.