WASHINGTON — Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward and her campaign think the McCain family may have released a statement about ending the late senator’s cancer treatments to interfere with her bus tour.

“I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me,” she wrote on the Facebook post of one of her staffers, who questioned whether it was “just a coincidence” the McCain family issued a statement Friday when Ward was to kick off her travels.

“Or if it was a plan to take media attention off her campaign?” Aide Jonathan Williams wrote. “I’m not saying it was on purpose but it’s quite interesting,” he said, according to the Arizona Republic.

The comments were made several hours before McCain died on Saturday.

The posts were screenshotted by Republican Aaron Borders, who is supporting one of Ward’s rivals, Rep. Martha McSally.

“It’s wildly inappropriate,” Borders told the Republic. “It’s classless. It’s not decent … it ’s very narcissistic. It’s a narcissist comment to sit there and think that the McCain family made this decision to interfere with your bus tour.”

On Saturday, Ward also knocked McCain at two campaign stops.

“We have a choice. Are we going to elect another senator cut from the same cloth as Jeff Flake and John McCain?” Ward asked the crowd.

Each time the crowd responded with a “No!”

On Sunday she responded to the criticism by smacking “the left” and the media, and by posting several photos of foul-mouth messages she received.

“The left is hateful, foul-mouthed, and easily misled. I do thank them (especially the out of staters) for increasing the reach of my page, thought!” she said. “I’ll repost my condolences for Mr. McCain’s family again – please take note of the trolling comments by people who buy into #FakeNews & political smears – or maybe they don’t – it could be that they just like any excuse to bully and attack.”

Ward ran against McCain in the 2016 Senate primary and lost to the senator who went on to win a sixth term in office.

She’s now battling it out against two other Republicans to try and win the seat occupied by Flake. Flake announced his retirement in October.

On Tuesday, Arizona voters will have to choose between Ward, McSally, the GOP establishment’s pick, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was given Trump’s first pardon.

Polling from last month showed McSally eight points ahead.

The winner of the GOP primary will likely be on the ballot against Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in the fall. She’s expected to win Tuesday’s Democratic primary.