Arizona's GOP Senate primary is quickly becoming one of the bloodiest — and Trump's visit could ignite it

Arizona's Republican Senate primary is turning ugly fast — and some are expecting that President Donald Trump will further ignite it during a highly-anticipated Tuesday night rally in Phoenix.

The fireworks in the race — which is currently between Sen. Jeff Flake and former state Sen. Kelli Ward — went off just before Trump's scheduled visit to the state.

In an ad from her campaign titled "Arizona deserves better," Ward blasted Flake for being featured in a Hillary Clinton campaign ad slamming Trump and calling for him to withdraw from the presidential race after the "Access Hollywood" tape came out in October.

The ad also appeared to tie Flake closely to President Barack Obama. As CNN's Andrew Kaczynski pointed out, the photo Ward's campaign used to make this assertion was from when Flake shook Obama's hand in the Oval Office alongside Arizona's congressional delegation at a bill signing honoring the federal judge who was shot and killed in Tucson, Arizona in 2011. That judge was shot as a part of the attack on former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot but survived.

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A Ward spokesperson told Kaczynski that the observation was "silly" and that "the ad speaks for itself."

"The message of the ad is that Senator Flake is not the conservative he claims to be, having aligned himself with Hillary Clinton and President Obama before and now opposing President Trump," the spokesperson said. "The ad's design, including our image highlighting Flake and Obama, conveys this visually, which is the goal of the piece."

Pro-Flake forces fired back their own ad on Tuesday, and they didn't hold anything back.

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with close ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has already announced his support for Flake, released an ad targeting "Chemtrail Kelli Ward."

As part of a roughly $10,000 digital ad campaign, the ad ripped Ward for her "embarrassing behavior" and "dangerous ideas," with the narrator saying it was "no wonder" Republican voters rejected Ward last year when she challenged Sen. John McCain.

"Chemtrail Kelli's got her head in the clouds with crazy ideas," the narrator said before noting that after "losing big league to John McCain," she called for him to step down last month after he revealed he was dealing with brain cancer. Ward also called on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to then appoint her to McCain's seat, saying she should be "at the top of the list" for the seat.

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"Chemtrail Kelli," the narrator said. "Not conservative. Just crazy ideas."

The "Chemtrail Kelli" attack was used against Ward during her primary campaign against McCain, which she lost by roughly 11 points.

In 2014, Ward had organized a town-hall meeting to discuss the "chemtrail" theory when she served as a state senator. That meeting including the participation of taxpayer-paid state environmental staffers, The Arizona Republic reported.

The "chemtrail" theory is one of the oldest anti-government conspiracies in circulation. It speculates that the visible streaks that come from airplanes are actually dangerous chemicals the government is attempting to spray over citizens, either to poison individuals or to change the weather for nefarious purposes.

"We're not willing to throw this Senate seat away to Democrats by nominating a fringe candidate like Kelli Ward," Steven Law, the Senate Leadership Fund’s president and McConnell's former chief of staff, told Politico, which additionally reported that those close to the group say the blistering Ward ad is a part of a broader offensive to show that any Trump-led pushes to oust GOP incumbents will be met with force.

Perhaps no sitting Republican politician has been the focus of Trump's ire more than Flake, who last month said in his book "Conscience of a Conservative" that his party was in "denial" about Trump, describing an executive branch "in chaos" and a president who has "seeming affection for strongmen and authoritarians."

Last week, Trump tweeted his support for Ward's campaign while blasting "Flake Jeff Flake."

"Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate," Trump wrote. "He's toxic!"

Trump has previously promised to spend as much as $10 million to oust Flake. One of Trump's top donors, billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, has already donated $300,000 to a pro-Ward super PAC, Politico reported.

And while much of what Trump plans to discuss during his Tuesday rally remains under wraps, the widespread consensus is that he will take no issue with further lambasting Flake.

Watch Ward's ad:

And watch the Senate Leadership Fund ad:

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