‘Liberal’ Mark Kelly and ‘dangerous’ Blake Masters: Arizona’s key Senate showdown is quickly heating up
Republican Blake Masters hopes to oust Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by tying him to President Joe Biden in Arizona's key Senate race this fall.
CHANDLER, Ariz. — Blake Masters went all in with Donald Trump, and it propelled him to victory in a highly competitive Republican nomination for Arizona’s coveted Senate seat.
Now, his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly this fall will test whether the Trump wing is strong enough to repaint Arizona red two years after Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose the state in 24 years.
As Kelly’s campaign labels Masters a “dangerous” and fringe candidate, Masters’ strategy is to tie Kelly to an unpopular President Joe Biden and undercut his image as a moderate. He’ll need to unite a party fractured by an ugly primary, unlike Kelly, who ran unchallenged for his party's renomination and ended June with $25 million cash on hand.
Trump-backed candidate Blake Masters wins Arizona Senate GOP nominationAug. 3, 202205:11“I think he’s the worst senator. This guy, Mark Kelly, he campaigns as a moderate, but he votes like a radical,” Masters told voters at his election night party in this Phoenix suburb. “We are sick of Joe Biden and the Democrats destroying our country.”
In what is shaping up to be one of the most hotly contested Senate races in 2022, one that could decide control of a chamber that is currently split 50-50, the newly minted Republican nominee begins his general election bid with a polling and fundraising deficit.
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