Last year Republicans did badly in Arizona, once one of the reddest states— but none of the statewide candidates did as badly as Senate candidate Blake Masters. Nor did any of them spend nearly as much money as he did. This is how all the statewide GOP candidates fared:
Abraham Hamadeh (Attorney General)- 49.99%
Kari Lake (Governor) 49.67
Mark Finchem (Secretary of State)- 47.6%
Blake Masters (Senate) 46.5%
Masters’ rumored ex-lover, Peter Thiel, and his circle spent almost $62 million bolstering Masters campaign. I suspect Thiel won’t be spending anything like that this time. This time? Yes, Masters is running again, although he’s unlikely to beat Kari Lake in a primary. 1,270,774 people voted for her. Around 74 thousand of her voters decided not to vote for him. Only 1,196,308 did. Last time Trump endorsed him. This time Trump will be endorsing Lake. He has no chance— unless she doesn’t run or winds up as Trump’s running mate. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is also running in the GOP primary.
Eliza Collins wrote that “National and state Republicans have worried about their ability to win the state with candidates who have aligned themselves so closely with Trump and his false claims of election fraud. Still, most believe that if Lake gets into the race, she will likely be the Republican nominee. In addition to backing false claims that Trump won the state in 2020, Lake has continued to push false claims that she won the 2022 election. Masters had questioned the 2020 election results, but did concede his 2022 loss. He has said he is supportive of Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 Republican primary.
Earlier this month, Emerson released a poll that didn’t bode well for Masters at all:
Lake- 42%
Lamb- 11%
Masters- 7%
Brian Wright- 2%
Jim Lamon- 2%