For Immediate Release
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
Senate Showdown: A Week of Rescinded Endorsements and Unremarkable Candidates
PHOENIX — Welcome to this week’s edition of the ‘Senate Showdown’ — a weekly roundup of the latest news in Arizona’s “crowded,” “costly,” and “chaotic” GOP Senate primary.
With “no clear frontrunner,” these amateur candidates will be busy duking it out well into the summer, ahead of Arizona’s August primary date. Until then, the Arizona Democratic Party’s ‘Showdown’ is here to help you keep track of this race’s breaking news, cringiest tweets, and nastiest doses of infighting.
Here’s what you missed this week:
AUGUST IS COMING: As The Hill reported this week, this combative contest is getting “increasingly bloody,” leaving many GOP operatives nervous that their eventual nominee will be “bruised,” “battered,” and downright unelectable by the time the general election rolls around. If they’re nervous now, we hate to see how they’ll feel after the next six weeks of attack ads and intraparty infighting leading up to the primary.
THE HITS JUST KEEP COMING: We told you so! Less than a week after Jewish Insider published Blake Masters’ Live Journal where he called for “unrestricted” immigration and praised drug smugglers as “heroes,” Jim Lamon cut an ad highlighting his rival’s immigration flip-flop. In typical Lamon form, the ad comes with serial killer lighting, bold typeface, and a six-figure backing. Oh to be a self-funding multi-millionaire…
THE INVISIBLE MEN: According to an Axios focus group of Arizona swing voters, the GOP Senate primary candidates are not just “decidedly weak,” they’re forgettable. The vast majority of participants could not recognize Masters and Lamon, despite the rivals spending millions of dollars to blanket the airwaves. Looks like there’s something money can’t buy…when you’re wholly unlikeable, anyways.
THE DOWNSIDE OF BUYING YOUR FRIENDS: Jim Lamon — known in this primary for spreading cash around to buy up endorsements — is embarrassingly shedding support. On Thursday, former Trump ally, Thiel pal, and Lamon-endorser Richard Grenell took to Twitter to withdraw his endorsement of Lamon for all to see, citing the multimillionaire’s aggressive persona as the reason for pulling his support. For Lamon’s sake, though, we’re hoping his endorsements came with a money back guarantee…
FAKEBLAKEMASTERS.COM: Didn’t you hear? It’s not a real race until there’s a microsite! Lucky for us, Jim Lamon checked that box, launching FakeBlakeMasters.com this week. The fact that the sexagenarian beat the millennial tech bro to building a microsite AND an app…embarrassing.
BLAKEY BREAKS DOUBLE DIGITS (SUPPOSEDLY): According to new polling, Blake Masters benefited from a Trump bump in this crowded contest and finally has double digit support. The peanut gallery had a variety of reactions: While Lamon calls the poll “fake” and “inconsistent,” Masters touts the results as fact. But we’re taking the results with a grain of salt. With a primary this wide-open, anyone who tells you they know who’s going to win knows about as much about this race as Lamon and Masters know about Arizonans.
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