Veteran US Policy Hawk McCain Wins Republican Senate Primary Election

John McCain, who is serving his sixth term as one of two US senators from the staunchly Republican state of Arizona, easily won a primary election which will allow him to retain the Republican nomination for the Senate contest on November 8 in his home state of Arizona, official results showed.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – With 29.5 percent of the votes reported in the Republican Senate primary election, McCain led with 53.6 percent and his main rival, former Arizona state senator Kelli Ward trailed with 36.8 percent, almost 17 points behind, according to official figures released on Tuesday night.

McCain, 80, has sat in the US Senate for 36 years and won six previous elections. He was the unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate against then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

McCain was an outspoken supporter of the coup that toppled democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine in February 2014 and is a leading critic of Russia in the US Senate.