For Immediate Release
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
Senate Showdown: A Week of Banning Abortion, Privatizing Social Security — and Ignoring Arizonans
PHOENIX — Welcome to the latest 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 up to 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 last week:
MILLENNIAL MASTERS AT IT AGAIN: Blake Masters announced his support for slashing Social Security, saying we need to “cut the knot” on benefits and privatize the program. Masters isn’t the only one openly running to dismantle Social Security — millionaire self-funder and retired businessman (oh – the irony) Jim Lamon is also gunning to make seniors’ lives harder, pushing to raise the retirement age to take away Arizonans’ benefits.
A DTC WITH DJT: If you got it, flaunt it (we guess). Last week, Trump-endorsed Blake Masters launched a direct-to-camera ad featuring the former president himself. In the spot, Trump touts Masters as a “very smart guy” and slams Jim Lamon and Mark Brnovich, saying the disappointing duo will “only let you down.” One takeaway: Peter Thiel is definitely getting his money’s worth…
A BRNO BAN: On Wednesday, Mark Brnovich claimed a 1901 pre-statehood statute criminalizing abortion and mandating jail time for abortion providers as law. Although Brnovich’s rivals have (notably) stayed mum on the AG’s decision, the field remains in competition with one another to see who can restrict abortion access the most — Masters supports a nationwide abortion ban and Lamon opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Again, we’ll remind folks that 87% of Arizonans want abortion to remain legal.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A TWITTER TANTRUM: After new polling showed Blake Masters leading the field, Jim Lamon took to Twitter to call out the “sham poll” for “boosting” the “liberal, Big Tech puppet.” A reminder for everyone, including and especially Lamon: With over 40% of primary voters still undecided, we have a lot of primary left to play out.
THE CIRCUS IS COMING TOWN: One month after the former president backed Peter Thiel’s passion project Masters, Donald Trump is set to host a rally in Arizona. On its own, Trump’s endorsement of Masters made this messy primary even more combustible, setting off a million-dollar attack ad war. With an IRL Trump visit on the horizon, the sky is the limit for the chaos that will ensue from now until then.
ALARM BELLS SHOULD BE RINGING: First, it was the right to abortion, next it was the right to birth control, and now it’s the right to marriage equality. Last week, the Daily Beast reported that Blake Masters opposes the right to same-sex marriage and believes his billionaire benefactor’s marriage should be illegal. Nice way to end Pride month, Blake.
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