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Power Trip
Jeff Flake’s Future Is Very, Very Complicated
He made a name for himself as a thorn in Trump’s side. But will he really break from the party line?
If you’re wondering what Jeff Flake is thinking, rest assured, you’re not alone. But the speculation that hovers over the Arizona senator predates the eleventh-hour move he made that upended, if only temporarily, the contentious confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. To understand what the 55-year-old is thinking, you need to look at what he has done in the past, what he did Friday — and what he’s doing next.
Flake, who will retire after his first term in the Senate ends in January, will spend Monday afternoon talking about the future of the Republican Party at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of St. Anselm College. This will be his second trip this year to the first-in-the-nation-presidential-primary state.
It’s always buzz-worthy when a well-known lawmaker visits the Granite State, especially on the verge of the 2020 presidential primary season. But the timing of Flake’s trip is especially eyebrow raising. Beltway chatter about the senator’s presidential prospects are at an all-time high thanks to his unexpected decision to help vote Kavanaugh out of the Judiciary Committee — but then…
