In Arizona Primary, Joe Arpaio Is Making His Last Stand
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. — Joe Arpaio grimaced as he called himself “stupid” for being pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen. He thundered against the polls showing him in last place among Republicans in Tuesday’s Senate primary in Arizona. The sheriff of yore in this part of the West even reserved some harsh words for Fox News.
“They seem to have forgotten me,” Mr. Arpaio said as he gazed at all the portraits of President Trump hanging on the walls of his suburban strip-mall office outside Phoenix.
There was a time not long ago when many in Arizona thought Mr. Arpaio, an immigration hard-liner who began his law enforcement career in 1954, would remain sheriff of Maricopa County for the rest of his life. Now the 86-year-old is waging one of his final battles, against irrelevance.
Some are writing off the pummeling Mr. Arpaio is taking in his Senate campaign as the sad bookend in a career of a man who could have ridden into the sunset after being pardoned by President Trump a year ago. (Mr. Arpaio had been convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to stop detaining suspected undocumented immigrants.) Arizona Senator John S. McCain, who died at age 81 over the weekend, had blasted Mr. Trump over the pardon, contending that Mr. Arpaio “has shown no remorse for his actions.”
For others here, Mr. Arpaio’s ebbing political fortunes, already made clear by his defeat in 2016 in his bid for a seventh term as sheriff, point to colossal changes in the political landscape of Arizona, a longtime Republican bastion.
Prominent conservatives around Arizona are now backing Mr. Arpaio’s rivals in the Republican Party, viewing him as far too divisive to win against Democrats in the contest for the seat being vacated by Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican who clashed with Mr. Trump.
At the same time, many independents and newly registered Latino voters are rallying around Representative Kyrsten Sinema, the moderate Democrat who has emerged as the front-runner in what will be a hotly contested general election. The last time Democrats won the seat in Arizona was 36 years ago.
“The powerlessness Arpaio’s feeling — well, now the shoe’s on the other foot, isn’t it?” said Alejandra Gomez, executive director of the Arizona Center for Empowerment, a group that supports immigrant rights and public education. “Latinos suffered for a long time at his hand, but it turned out to be a call to action.”