Q&A Jeff Flake

IN 2017, SEN. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced he wouldn't seek reelection. He told his colleagues that "we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal."

- Interview by Nick Gillespie

Eight years later, Flake reflects on why he walked away. In this conversation with Reason's Nick Gillespie, just before the government shutdown in September 2025, he talked about the GOP's turn toward grievance politics, the abandonment of free markets and immigration reform, and waiting for the Trump fever to break.

Q: One of the most memorable speeches from the floor of the Senate came from you in October 2017. You announced you were not running for reelection, saying you would not be complicit in the degradation of our politics. We’re talking hours before a government shutdown, and President Donald Trump recently posted an AI video on social media mocking Democratic Party leaders Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer [both of New York]. What’s your response?

A: Well, that’s exactly what I was talking about in 2017. Anybody who gets to the Senate wants to spend more than one term. I would have liked to run again. But the price to be paid would have been to say: Those things I said I believed in, I don’t believe in those anymore—on immigration or Muslim bans or tariffs. I just couldn't do it.