Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake on Sunday tamped down speculation that he’d take a 2020 run against President Donald Trump.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Flake remained insistent, however, that a Republican must challenge the incumbent.
“I’ve said all along that somebody needs to run on the Republican side, if nothing else to remind Republicans what it means to be conservative, what being a conservative really means, and what it means to be decent as well,” he said.
“I think the future of the party is with people with an optimistic vision moving ahead. I don’t think that will be me. I think there are better candidates out there.”
Flake also said the GOP can’t win Arizona with Trump-linked candidates, a veiled rebuke of Rep. Martha McSally’s losing Senate campaign to fill his seat to Democrat Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.
“Arizona is still nominally a Republican state,” he said, adding: “But you cannot run as someone who is just tied at the hip with the president and win statewide. Voters in Arizona are rejecting that, and I think we’re seeing that elsewhere in the country as well.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.