Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate calls for GOP chair Kelli Ward to resign

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Arizona Republican leaders are divided over the state of their party. On Tuesday, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson released a statement calling for the Arizona GOP Chair, Kelli Ward, to step down. Robson said this is the first time since the Watergate Era that the Arizona Republican Party has lost a majority of statewide races.

“When you look at the results from last night they were horrendous for the Republican Party,” said Matt Salmon, who served as AZ GOP Chairman from 2006 to 2008.

Robson said, “On Ward’s Watch: the Arizona GOP has allowed our state to vote Democrat for the president for the first time in a generation, has lost two United States Senate races, along with the Governor’s Office. Robson went on to call Ward’s leadership an “unmitigated disaster.”

“The party is as weak and irrelevant as I have ever seen it in my life in this state and it really really makes me sad,” said Salmon.

Robson lost to Kari Lake in the GOP primary. Ward backed Lake in that race. It is a move that Salmon said likely cost the party the midterm election. “In the past, party chairman’s are not supposed to weigh in on the primaries. You are supposed to give everyone an even hand. Kelli Ward did everything she could to stack the deck at the state level. The candidates that she wanted won the primary and got creamed in the general,” said Salmon.

Arizona’s Family reached out to Ward for comment but have not heard back at this time.

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