Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona suggested her supporters should "fast a meal" and donate the money saved to her campaign as she falls behind in the polls to keep her Senate seat, according to audio obtained by a local news outlet.
McSally reportedly made the suggestion at an event in northern Arizona, according to the audio obtained by Arizona Family.
"There's an air war going on on television right now, right, you see it," McSally said in the audio. "And look, we're being outgunned in the air, OK."
"We're doing our part to catch up, you know to get our message out. But it takes resources," the incumbent Arizona senator continued. "So anybody can give, I'm not ashamed to ask, to invest. if you can give a dollar, five dollars, if you can fast a meal and give what that would be."
Christine Jones, a Republican businesswoman who ran for governor in 2014 and Congress in 2016, called it "unconventional" for McSally to ask her supporters to fast a meal.
"I haven't talked to her about it so I can't really opine on the specifics of it, but it does feel like it's a little bit of an act of desperation."
McSally is down in the polls against Democrat Mark Kelly, according to FiveThirtyEight's tracker of general election polls.
According to an analysis from NBC News, more than 864,000 people filed for unemployment in Arizona — nearly a quarter of the state's workforce — amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement to Arizona Family, a spokeswoman for Mc Sally's campaign told the news outlet: "This is a dumb non-story about a candidate making a joke on the stump."
