Blake Masters, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, told Newsmax that receiving former President Donald Trump’s support on Thursday is an honor and a privilege. During a Friday appearance on “Greg Kelly Reports,” the Thiel Foundation head also credited “President Trump with preserving our country.”
“President Trump, in my opinion, is the only one who can save our country. He literally spared us from Hillary Clinton’s wrath “Masters clarified. “Look at how much we’ve suffered under [President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] for the past two years. Imagine a six- or seven-year Hillary Clinton presidency if it weren’t for President Trump.”
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Blake Masters, an Arizona Senate contender. Masters has pushed many of Trump’s talking points during his campaign, and he thinks that the support will make the difference in a Republican primary that has so far lacked a clear front-runner.
On Thursday, Trump supported Masters, a Tucson-based venture investor, just weeks after the former president was rumored to be on an endorsement break following the losses of numerous of his favored candidates around the country. Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Trump favorite, is likely to face a recount in his Senate race in Pennsylvania.
Given that Masters was a member of Trump’s transition team in 2016, it was widely believed that he would get Trump’s approval to run against Democrat Mark Kelly in November. Trump hosted a fundraiser for Masters at the former president’s Mar-A-Lago estate, and he spoke at a recent Masters campaign event, bragging about his credentials.
But, more crucially, the action was widely anticipated since Trump had no intention of endorsing Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the most serious challenger to Masters. Brnovich has a large following and receives a lot of free media attention on Fox News and related stations, with at least one appearance every week.
However, Brnovich has incurred Trump’s fury since he has not filed any charges in response to Trump’s phony election fraud accusations in 2020. Masters “knows that the ‘Crime of the Century’ occurred, he will expose it, and he will never allow it happen again,” Trump stated. Trump stated, “Mark Brnovich is such a disappointment to me.” “While he recognizes that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged and stolen, he merely sees it as something he hopes would never happen again.”
Masters has the support of Peter Thiel, his former boss, and mentor, who is a strong Trump supporter. Thiel contributed $10 million to Masters’ campaign through his PAC, Saving Arizona. Thiel just contributed another $3.5 million to the committee. Despite his jabs against Brnovich, Trump commended Masters for his policy positions.
“Blake is strong on border security, especially the horrific southern border where people are flooding into the United States by the millions and ruining our country,” Trump stated in a statement released through his Save America PAC. “We had the strongest border in the history of our country just two years ago, thanks to the Wall, and today we have the weakest – Blake will turn that around.”
It’s uncertain how much of a difference a Trump supporter can make in a Republican candidacy. While it worked in Ohio for Senate candidate J.D. Vance, another Thiel-backed candidate, it hasn’t worked as well in other elections. Trump also backed Kari Lake for governor of Arizona and Mark Finchem for secretary of state, although it does not appear to have had a significant impact.
In polls, Lake has maintained a 30-35 percent support rating, whereas Finchem does not appear to have widespread Republican support. In most polls for that race, the amount of people who are unsure is alarmingly high.
Masters, on the other hand, told Politico in a recent article that he didn’t think he’d win without Trump’s help. One thing is clear: Trump’s support comes with a money bump since Lake and Finchem have the most individual donations in their races.
Masters also tops the GOP Senate primary field in fundraising (excluding self-funded candidates), but his total pales in contrast to Kelly, who is on track to collect at least $100 million this year, as he did in 2020. In the second quarter, Masters had $2.25 million on hand, compared to Kelly’s $23 million.
Then there’s Jim Lamon, a former solar executive who pledged to self-fund his campaign for a year at a rate of $1 million every month. He has a war fund of at least $7 million, but his campaign has mostly focused on Trump.
Much more than Brnovich, he will likely take Trump’s backing of Masters as a bad indication. Lamon recently ran an ad in which he attacked Masters, calling him a “puppet” of Big Tech. Regardless matter who wins the GOP primary, unseating Kelly in a year that is expected to benefit Republicans will almost certainly be a difficult battle. Kelly just nearly beat Martha McSally in 2020, when Democrats mainly prevailed at the top of the ticket.
