Sydney Hay has heard it all, she is too conservative, she can’t raise the money, she won’t be able to attract Independent voters, she won’t be able to withstand the Republican establishment once they find a candidate. Well here she is, almost certainly on her way to the Republican nomination in Arizona’s First Congressional District.

Just since PolitickerAZ.com launched in January, Bill Konopnicki, Andy Tobin, Lisa Atkins, Tom O’Halleran, Steve Pierce, Ken Bennett, J.D. Hayworth, Kris Mayes and Jake Flake, have all explored or have been rumored as possible candidates.

With that many names not committing you would think it’s a lost cause for Republicans.

Rothenberg Report has Arizona's 1st CD rated as one of only 15 toss-up seats in the country and the Cook Partisan voting index has it listed as a R+2, which means it typically runs 2% better than national average for Republicans. Yet every candidate the establishment could come up with decided against it.

Sydney Hay never got districted from her goal though. She stuck in there, kept raising money and worked on garnering endorsements from conservative organizations such as the American Conservative Union and the Eagle Forum.

It appears now Sydney Hay only needs to get through primary foe Preston Korn and she will be the Republican flag bearer in November. Inside Edge has talked with a couple of state and CD1 Republican leaders and they have confirmed they are out of names. One CD1 political operative told Inside Edge “I haven’t heard any other serious names, which means Republicans will lose this seat in November.”

While some Republicans think Hay may be to conservative, she will be running to replace Rick Renzi, who has a lifetime ACU rating of 88%. Not exactly a liberal voting record.

While Democrats seem to be thrilled with Sydney Hay, and many establishment Republicans are less than thrilled, this election will be a fun one to watch this fall. Sydney Hay has proven she is a fighter and won't be go down without an all out fight.

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