JEFF FLAKE, Arizona's junior senator, is among the upper chamber's more reliably conservative members, as conservatism was once defined. Freedom Works, an organisation that scores members on their votes for low taxes and less regulation, gives him a 95% lifetime rating, higher than all but four other senators. The National Rifle Association endorsed him, as did the Club for Growth, a low-tax advocacy group. But he not only declined to endorse President Donald Trump last year, he wrote a book condemning Mr Trump's influence on conservatism. For someone as indifferent to policy and demanding of personal loyalty as Mr Trump, that proved unacceptable. The president repeatedly lambasted Mr Flake and praised Kelli Ward, his highest-profile primary challenger, whom Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump's former chief strategist, has endorsed. That augured a bruising campaign that Mr Flake decided was best avoided.
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