For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
SIX WEEKS OUT: What To Know About the “Bloody,” “Combustible,” and “Wide-Open” GOP Senate Primary
PHOENIX — With six weeks to go until primary day, Arizona’s “bitter” GOP Senate primary is messier than ever, especially after Donald Trump poured gasoline on the already chaotic contest earlier this month by endorsing Blake Masters. Since then, the race has been rife with intensified infighting, aggressive attack ads, and too many Twitter tirades to count.
See below for the six things you need to know six weeks out from Arizona’s GOP Senate primary:
- IT’S ANYONE’S GAME: Despite the fact that this primary is over a year old, Brnovich, Lamon, and Masters are still in a “three-way scrum” that has “no clear frontrunner.” With a significant percentage of voters undecided, the trio will undoubtedly continue their desperate attempts to break through, even if it means getting “very nasty and intensely personal.”
- MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Between Jim Lamon’s personal pledge of $50 million and Peter Thiel’s $13.5 million investment in Blake Masters’ bid, this primary price tag continues to climb. What’s more: Club for Growth’s recent ad buy to bump their boy Blake is likely just the start of more outside intervention in the weeks to come.
- THE AZ GOP(ARTY OF TRUMP): Although Blake Masters (via billionaire benefactor Peter Thiel) landed the official Trump endorsement, this entire field has and will continue trying to out-Trump each other, “duking it out to win Donald Trump’s affection.” For the rest of the race, these three pro-Trump Republicans will continue to run on the former president’s baseless lies in order to capture the far-right faction of the primary electorate.
- AMPED UP AD ASSAULT: Already, these candidates, as well as outside organizations, have blanketed airwaves with negative ads, bombarding voters with a laundry list of reasons why they should never support Lamon, Masters, and Brnovich. From now until primary day, that list will only continue to grow as the field continues their nasty attack war for Arizonans in every corner of the state to see.
- FINALLY, A FULL FIELD FACE-OFF: Up until now, Lamon and Brnovich have been hiding from the campaign trail, presumably banking on their war chest and name ID (respectively) to carry them to victory. Soon, that could all change: The entire field is expected to come face-to-face for the first time in months at a FreedomWorks forum in Phoenix on Thursday.
- THIS IS JUST THE WARM UP: On August 2nd, Republican primary voters will anoint their chosen nominee to take on Senator Mark Kelly in the general election. Already, GOP insiders are worried these already “decidedly weak” and “lesser-known Republicans” will pummel each other to a pulp in the primary, leaving behind a “bruised,” and “battered” candidate for this fall’s November election.
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