Cindy McCain: Today’s GOP ‘is not the party that my husband and I belonged to’
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The 2020 election will likely be decided by a handful of states. A few of them, like Michigan and Pennsylvania, are traditionally Democratic. Others, like Florida, are tossups trending Republican. And then there’s Arizona, the longtime GOP stronghold where Democratic gains are causing major heartburn for national Republicans.
And Republicans are right to be worried about Arizona, says Cindy McCain, wife of the late Sen. John McCain, who represented the state in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades prior to his death in 2018.
“I can see [Arizona] going Democrat, I really can,” McCain said during an interview for POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast. “I’m not saying I want that, but I can see it happening.”
There are, said McCain, two major reasons why: one has to do with changes in the state, and the other stems from the transformation of the Republican Party during the presidency of Donald Trump.
“We have a huge Hispanic population now that have found their voice in politics, number one. And number two, we have on my side of the aisle — on the Republican side — we see a local party in Arizona that’s not functioning well, and it’s excluding people,” said McCain. “If you’re not walking the line, then you’re out. That’s just not right. That’s not the party that my husband and I belonged to.”
In the year since her husband died following a long fight against brain cancer, Cindy McCain has largely stepped away from the public eye. But she has maintained a vocal role on two issues of deep personal import: promoting civility in politics and combatting human trafficking.
In August, the McCain Institute unveiled a new “#ActsOfCivility” campaign aimed at urging American citizens to foster a spirit of bipartisanship and open dialogue in their own lives, hoping that this behavior might trickle up, with elected officials in Washington following suit.
“The inability to even discuss issues — differing issues — it’s degenerated into name-calling and Twitter responses, and all of these things that not only do they not help the argument, but they don’t help foster good relationships with people,” McCain said.
One of the people engaged in incendiary Twitter theatrics is, of course, President Donald Trump, whose obsessive ire for John McCain continues in both public and private, even well after McCain’s death.
Cindy McCain said she finds the president’s behavior “frustrating,” but does not intend to publicly engage with Trump. “As far as I’m concerned, for me, it doesn’t do me any good to dwell on the past or dwell on anything that’s been negative or positive or whatever it may be,” said McCain. “I want this country to move forward. I want this country to be the vision that my husband had for it.”
Though some Americans see the 2020 presidential election as a chance to change the trajectory of the country, McCain doesn’t see herself taking an active role in the campaign, even as she expressed a heartfelt fondness for Jill and Joe Biden, whose friendship with the McCains dates back to the night Cindy and John first met.
“It was Jill Biden that was really pushing John to come over and meet me, introduce himself to me,” McCain said. “I’m so grateful he did, and I’m grateful she did that. … Jill and Joe Biden and my husband and I were such good friends.”
That friendship continued all the way through Sen. McCain’s battle with brain cancer, said McCain. Throughout that time, and in the year since, Joe Biden has been “a remarkable source of inspiration, kindness, and just a shoulder,” McCain said.
As for whether or not she’ll publicly endorse Biden’s 2020 campaign, McCain demurred. “I’m really going to try to stay out of politics altogether,” she said with a chuckle. “This season, anyway.”
To hear more from Cindy McCain, listen to the full podcast here. Women Rule takes listeners backstage with female bosses for real talk on how they made it and what advice they have for women looking to lead.
