His middle-ground positioning is drawing flak from both sides. Ward says McCain is pretending to support Trump until the calendar turns to Aug. 31 and Kirkpatrick is his only remaining foe.

“He’s pandering to the Republican electorate to try to get votes he probably would never get if he comes out and denounces Trump in the primary,” Ward said in an interview at a dimly lit chophouse here. “He is much more aligned with Hillary Clinton than he is with Donald Trump.”

Despite McCain’s insistence that he won’t flip his script on Trump, Ward said “it’s more than possible” that he turns on the Republican nominee. Such a move would be earth-shaking: Underdog incumbent GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois is the only Senate Republican up for reelection so far to withdraw support for Trump.

Even some of McCain’s supporters say it may be time for McCain to cement his status as an independent voice for Arizona and tear into a Republican nominee who has treated him so harshly.

John Doyle, the independent mayor of the heavily Democratic town of Nogales on the Mexico border, suggested that McCain, whom he supports, should get “a little bit in [Trump’s] face.”