Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday the appointment of Jon Kyl, a retired three-term U.S. senator, to fill the seat of the late John McCain _ but only for the next few months.
In a surprise wrinkle, Kyl said he would commit to serving only until the end of the current session of Congress, which concludes in January. Ducey, standing alongside Kyl, said he hoped to persuade the 76-year-old ex-lawmaker to continue in the job and spare the need for another interim appointment.
"There is no one in Arizona with the stature of Sen. Jon Kyl," Ducey said in a sober appearance announcing his selection. "He is a man without comparable peer. With nearly two decades experience in the Senate, serving alongside John McCain, Sen. Kyl is prepared to hit the ground running."
The reliably conservative Kyl was already working with the White House to help shepherd the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate. Now, Ducey noted, he will be able to cast a vote in Kavanaugh's favor, as McCain was expected to do.
Moments before Ducey was scheduled to make his announcement, McCain's widow, Cindy, revealed Ducey's likely choice and offered her support. Cindy McCain has been among those mentioned as a possible successor to her husband, as was their daughter, Meghan.
"Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona," she wrote on Twitter.
The death of McCain last month at age 81 presented Ducey, a fellow Republican, with both an opportunity and a dilemma.
Under state law, he was obliged to appoint a Republican. But the Arizona GOP is one of the most deeply divided in the country, torn between pragmatists who supported McCain and the state's other GOP senator, Jeff Flake, and fiercely conservative activists who loathed both men, especially for their criticisms of President Donald Trump.
Caught in the middle was Ducey, who is up for re-election in November against Democrat David Garcia. Although he is favored to win the contest, Ducey could ill afford to antagonize his Republican base or the state's sizable number of independent voters, who are turned off by extremes in both parties.
Kyl, 76, was seen as his safest choice. Before stepping down in January 2013, he was well regarded within the GOP and respected by Democrats on Capitol Hill, where he served in a number of leadership positions.
Kyl appeared grave at Tuesday's announcement and made clear he was not taking up the position with great eagerness. "I'm putting my country first," he said, "just as this seat's previous occupant did every single day for more than 30 years."
Kyl said he would not seek the office in 2020, which could make for a lively and competitive contest to fill the seat for the remainder of McCain's term ending in January 2023. If he steps aside next year, Ducey would have to appoint yet another interim senator to fill the seat until after the November election.
Arizona is currently home to one of the hardest-fought Senate races, pitting GOP Rep. Martha McSally of Tucson against Phoenix's Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. The two are vying for the open seat of Flake, who succeeded Kyl and opted to step aside rather than risk losing the Republican primary.
Ducey's announcement came two days after McCain was laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy cemetery following nearly a week of commemorations, including services that drew thousands of mourners in Arizona and Washington, D.C.
The announcement bolsters the GOP ranks on Capitol Hill, where the Republicans' 51-49 majority dwindled to a single vote during McCain's prolonged retreat to Arizona for medical care.
Kyl is expected to be a far more reliable partisan vote than McCain, who occasionally broke with his party, including, most notably, casting a decisive vote last summer against GOP efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act.
Still, Kyl has been critical of the president, if not his policies. He was asked Tuesday about past remarks calling Trump "boorish" and sometimes his "own worst enemy."
"Sometimes his desire to jump in the middle of a fight, or create a fight, sometimes can be detrimental to what he's trying to achieve," Kyle said evenly. "That is what I said and I stand by that comment."
