Arizona Democrats, noting McCain’s sagging popularity, had their eye on him this cycle even before it was known that Republican primary voters would make an immense in-kind contribution to the Democratic cause by nominating Donald Trump for the presidency. In 2014, a survey from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling found McCain to be the “least popular senator in the country”; McCain referred to this as “bogus.” In a May PPP survey (commissioned by progressive group MoveOn, as McCain’s campaign likes to point out), McCain’s overall approval rating sat underwater at 34 percent to 52.

“Everyone in Arizona has a story about how John McCain’s been an asshole to them,” Democratic consultant Andy Barr says.

The Kirkpatrick campaign’s message to those who do remember McCain’s popular “maverick” iteration is that he’s changed, while the message to younger voters is that he’s always been this bad.

And the message to everyone is that John McCain supports Donald Trump’s candidacy.

Not a single Arizona Republican operative I spoke with would describe McCain’s support of Trump as anything other than a political necessity. He’s just doing what he needs to do. But it’s not good enough, Democrats say, for McCain to say he supports the nominee—even after having been personally insulted last year—but then to keep his distance and act as if they’re wholly separate entities. He can’t have it both ways. In the age of Trump, he can’t be the loyal Republican soldier and the independent-minded center-right ally of Hispanic communities.