McCains clash with Turning Point over Arizona GOP losses

After Arizona Republicans got shut out of the governor’s office and lost both chambers of the state Legislature, the late Sen. John McCain’s children let loose on a leader of Turning Point’s political arm.

The disagreement was over who is to blame for the GOP’s back-to-back-to-back losing streak in center-right Arizona. Republicans still outnumber Democrats in the state, but independents have outpaced both parties in voter registration.

“My Dad was the last sitting Senator to easily win as a Republican and is still beloved in Arizona. There are lessons from his legacy to be learned and you only further alienate the vital independents by disrespecting him,” daughter Meghan McCain, a national political commentator, said on X.

The Nov. 3 midterm election was brutal for Republicans up and down the ballot. Arizona Democrats won a governing trifecta for the first time since the 1960s. The sweep was part of a nationwide blue wave of voters rejecting President Donald Trump’s second-term priorities.

But Arizona Republicans have been losing statewide races for much longer.

A Republican has not won a U.S. Senate or gubernatorial election in Arizona since former Gov. Doug Ducey was reelected in 2018.

That’s the same year that McCain died of brain cancer, Turning Point moved its headquarters to Phoenix, and then-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema flipped the first of Arizona’s two U.S. Senate seats when she beat Republican Martha McSally.

The post-midterm social media spat between Turning Point and the McCains kicked off when Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action’s chief operating officer, used his platform to take a swing at the Arizona political family.

“Interestingly enough, the McCains picked Martha McSally twice and she lost both our Senate Seats,” Bowyer said.

That’s when the McCains took the gloves off.

Meghan McCain said she had been “inundated” with media requests to talk about Arizona and Turning Point, but she had declined out of respect for Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk and the late Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in 2025.

“I don’t know why, particularly in this moment when we should all be reflecting and working together, Turning Point wants to make an enemy of me and my family,” Meghan McCain said. “But so be it.”

Who recruited McSally to run for the US Senate?

Bowyer blamed the McCains for Martha McSally running for Senate, a retelling that some Arizona Republicans say is inaccurate.

Jack McCain, McCain's son, even made his X account public to dispute Bowyer’s account of what happened. He accused Bowyer of “blame shifting” and said Turning Point has been “a near guarantor of republican losses across the board.”

“Even if you are going to hold up McSally as who the ‘McCains’ picked (get your facts right, guy), pointing to a single election in the absolute sundering that has been TPUSA’s story in AZ is just you trying to keep donations incoming. Your K/D ratio is not something I’d advertise,” Jack McCain said, using a popular gaming term that is short for "Kill/Death ratio."

McSally was a rising star when she launched a Senate bid in 2018. She used her swing congressional district victory as a launchpad to run for the upper chamber after then-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, unexpectedly announced his retirement.

McSally beat former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former state Sen. Kelli Ward in a Republican primary by moving toward Trump and away from McCain’s more centrist style.

McSally had a less-than-perfect relationship with the McCain family. It was considered a major gaffe when she failed to mention the senior senator's name while offering her support for the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act shortly before his death in August 2018.

Meghan McCain called it “disgraceful” at the time.

McSally lost to Sinema in the general election, then former Gov. Doug Ducey appointed her to fill McCain’s seat after he died. The late Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, for whom McSally previously had worked as an aide, briefly filled the vacancy before her.

McSally ran again to keep the seat and this time lost to Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, in 2020. Her rightward shift in the Trump era was seen as a key reason for the defeat.

Kari Lake told McCain Republicans to 'get the hell out!'

In the years since, Republicans said the Trump-aligned Turning Point became a major force pushing Republicans through primary races who were too extreme to win statewide general elections. For example, Turning Point boosted Freedom Caucus Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, who lost to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs by double digits on Nov. 3.

Jack McCain also pointed to the Turning Point-backed Kari Lake, a divisive former TV anchor who lost two statewide races and famously said to a crowd in 2022, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!”

“Who divided conservatives? Turning points HAND SELECTED candidate told McCain republicans to leave the room. Turning point ran primary candidates that couldn’t win a general,” Jack McCain said. “They aren’t a party; they are a disaster.”

Bowyer declined to comment for this story. He slammed the McCains for taking Lake’s advice and fleeing the party during the Trump era.

“You both did zero to help a single Republican in Arizona,” Bowyer said. “Your family has helped a lot of Democrats out of Trump spite.”

Bowyer also hammered Meghan McCain for “playing the Daddy’s name fiddle every time a Republican loses.” He called it “loser stuff.”

“Arizona went from red, to purple, to reliably blue under your brand,” Jack McCain said. “Your proposition is, ‘let me do it harder’?”