“No,” McCain said in late August, when it appeared that Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) was offering him a tough reelection challenge. “There’s no reason to do that.”

But Trump’s stock tanked in the ensuing six weeks. And McCain cited issues that other Republican didn’t touch in their statements abandoning Trump, particularly Trump’s continued insistence that five men in New York accused of a 1989 rape were guilty even after they were exonerated.

“Just this week, he made outrageous statements about the innocent men in the Central Park Five case,” McCain said. “There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences.”

McCain has led Kirkpatrick by double-digits in recent polls, a cushion that allowed McCain to leave the state to campaign for more endangered Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).