Blake Masters, an ultra-MAGA candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the marquee GOP Senate primary in Arizona Tuesday night, setting up a general-election showdown with his more traditional Democratic rival that will test whether the way to win a key swing state in 2022 is by channeling the animosities of the far right — or by trying to appeal to a broader coalition.
With more than 70% of precincts reporting, Masters —a 35-year-old “anti-progressive” venture capitalist propelled to the front of a crowded primary field by at least $15 million in super PAC funding from powerful Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, his longtime boss and mentor — clinched his party’s U.S. Senate nomination early Wednesday morning, defeating wealthy solar power executive Jim Lamon and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
On Election Day, Masters will face off against incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly in a race that will help determine control of the closely divided Senate.
After midnight, a second MAGA candidate, state Rep. Mark Finchem, also won the GOP nomination for Arizona secretary of state. And a third, former Phoenix news anchor Kari Lake, was locked in a close battle for the party’s gubernatorial nod with her establishment rival, real estate developer Karrin Taylor Robson.
“We won today seven-out-of-10 Election Day votes,” Lake told her supporters Tuesday night, claiming — erroneously — that “there is no path to victory for my opponent and we won this race. Period.”
Lake also alleged that “if we don’t win, there’s some cheating going on” — a possible hint that she could challenge the results in the days ahead.
Both Lake and Finchem have parroted Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — and vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent another Trump loss in the future. Masters has also declared that “Trump won in 2020.”
For all three election deniers, these displays of fealty were sufficient to snag Trump’s sought-after support, which he bestowed in person at a July 22 rally in Prescott Valley.
On the same day, Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence was campaigning across the state for Robson, who has refused to say the 2020 election was rigged. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey — another prominent Republican who, like Pence, resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 result — also endorsed Robson, along with Finchem’s main rival, Beau Lane.
If Lake ultimately joins Finchem and Masters on the winner’s podium, they would cement a Trump sweep in the Grand Canyon State — and combine to form perhaps the most pro-MAGA slate of candidates anywhere in America.
But the problem for Republicans is that Arizona is hardly America’s most pro-MAGA state.
“With the national mood turning so strongly against the Biden administration and Democratic control of Congress, Republican candidates should have a relatively easy time recapturing seats in Arizona this cycle,” says Robert Robb, a longtime columnist for the Arizona Republic and former GOP political consultant. “But these candidates are weak candidates. Whatever this ‘new right’ thing is, I don’t think that it necessarily fits Arizona.”
From Pennsylvania to Georgia to Nevada, GOP primary voters have repeatedly rankled Republican strategists and delighted their Democratic counterparts this year by…
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