PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain dispatched Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick on Tuesday to win a sixth term, prevailing in a hard-fought race in which the former GOP standard-bearer faced backlash both for backing Donald Trump and then withdrawing his support a month before Election Day.


Kirkpatrick represented McCain's strongest challenge in years, but his prolific fundraising and name recognition proved difficult to overcome. Kirkpatrick's candidacy never gained the traction it needed to overcome an incumbent who has been in office for 33 years and was the Republican nominee for president eight years ago.

McCain was hounded by his support for Trump, standing behind the GOP presidential candidate as he bashed the senator as a "loser" and said there was nothing heroic about his military record after he was shot down during the Vietnam War and spent five years as a prisoner of war.

McCain withdrew his support in early October after a 2005 recording emerged in which the billionaire businessman crudely boasted about groping women. The move led to outcry from conservative voters firmly behind Trump at the same time Arizona became more competitive in the presidential race, but he was able to overcome it.

The senator said he would write in the name of his longtime friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, a vote that won't count because the South Carolina politician is not a qualified write-in candidate.

In his victory speech in downtown Phoenix, McCain acknowledged the gridlock in Washington and the polarizing 2016 election.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accompanied by his wife Cindy McCain, waves to supporters after they dropped off their ballots at a polling station Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Phoenix. The incumbent McCain is running against Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz.

Photo Credit: Ross D. Franklin/AP

"This has been a difficult national election, and not always an uplifting one. But Americans have done their duty as citizens and chosen a new president. For too long, Washington has schemed and fought and maneuvered to gain political advantage at the cost of delivering for the American people.  We've made too little, if any, progress meeting the great challenges of our time, which are many and difficult," he said.

McCain, 80, served in the U.S. House and then was elected to the Senate in 1986, succeeding conservative icon Barry Goldwater. He will be 86 when his new term ends, making him one of the oldest- and longest-serving members of the Senate.

Kirkpatrick, 66, is a lawyer who was first elected to Congress during the 2008 Democratic rout. She was voted out of office two years later in the tea party revolt that put Republicans back in charge of the House. She returned to office in 2012.

"The one message that came through loud and clear in this election is that Americans want progress now.

McCain's backing for Trump early in the campaign cost him voters like Tavit Tashjian of Phoenix. The 31-year-old musician is an independent who voted for McCain for president in 2008 and backed the senator in his previous re-election bids. This year, he's going all Democrat, and he believes McCain sold out by standing by Trump.

"I think when you lose your principles in politics, that's everything for me," he said.

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