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2020 Senate Run Is An Option For Grant Woods

There is speculation that Former Republican attorney general Grant Woods gearing up to put him in the right position to run for Senate in 2020. 

In addition to switching his party affiliation to Democrat, Woods recently said he is “certainly doing everything to make that decision.”

“I had to do first things first. I was already talking to people and doing things and then we needed to see how the elections came out. I figured that would be on Tuesday night — it wasn’t, it took another almost week,” Woods said on Thursday.


Before he decided his political future, he had to initially let the race between Democrat, and now Senator-elect, Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally play out.

Having been considering a Senate run since his friend Sen. John McCain died of brain cancer in July, Woods previously endorsed Sinema in her run towards the Senate and did the same for Democrat Hiral Tipirneni in her bid for the Congressional District 8 seat.

When it came to switching party affiliations, that decision wasn’t made by Woods until after the Nov. 6 election. The change comes on the heels of the Democrats seeing monumental gains in the U.S. House and other state legislatures throughout the country.

Just because Woods’ affiliation has changed from Republican to Democrat doesn’t mean his views on issues have changed.

 “I’ve always been a more moderate Republican, for sure, but my views have not changed,” he said. “The Republican party changed, that’s what changed.” 

Woods now views the Republican party as that of President Donald Trump, “and I want no part of that.” 

“Most Republican leaders have gone lockstep with Trump,” said Woods. “They’re condoning behavior that they never would have in the past. It’s an attack on American institutions that they used to say they were for and now apparently they don’t care.”

If the final decision made by Woods is to run for Senate in 2020, he would be running for a position that is currently held by Sen. Jon Kyl. Kyl was appointed to the seat after McCain died. 

Kyl’s service in the role isn’t currently expected to go beyond January and that remains true, Gov. Doug Ducey would be tasked with selecting a Republican replacement for the position until 2020. Once 2020 arrives, voters would be tasked with selecting who would occupy the seat through 2022 in a special election. After that time, the role would return to being a full six-year term.