While the polls have incumbent Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly slightly ahead of Republican Blake Masters, it’s clear that the race is tightening, and Masters is taking all the right steps to get over the edge.
As I reported earlier in October, Jim Lamon publicly endorsed Masters’s candidacy, as he was the runner-up to Masters, losing 28.1 percent to Masters’ 40.2 percent. The primary was brutal, and the fact that Lamon went in front of the Sun City West Republican Club to express the importance of party unity to win elections is noteworthy.
“We all have to stand united,” Lamon said. “Just like Marxists do.”
“We might not all agree on everything, but we can all agree that our country needs us,” he continued.
“I stand full square by Blake,” he added, and said he’ll be making a maximum donation to him.
On Sunday, Masters received a warm welcome at a rally in Mesa, Arizona, featuring former President Donald Trump and the slate of Arizona Republican candidates.
“Thirty days from now the people of Arizona are going to fire your radical and highly incompetent Senator Mark Kelly,” Trump said of the incumbent senator running against Masters.
“We need new blood, we need strong blood,” he added, as Masters is 36 years old. He is currently polling on average 4.1 percent behind Kelly in the competitive race.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence held a brief press conference with the Republican senatorial nominee to show their support.
“I’m here because Blake Masters is a proven conservative,” Pence said.
“Frankly, as the people of Arizona saw in that debate just earlier this week, Blake Masters is one of the brightest stars in the Republican Party in America and he will be a leader on day one in a new Republican majority in Washington, D.C.,” the former vice president added.
Masters needs support from a wide variety of figures within the Republican Party, if he wants to win in November, and that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s no secret that there are disagreements between influential GOP figures on certain issues, namely the 2020 election.
However, more topics unite than divide underneath the “big tent”- as long as people are willing to hear each other out on solutions. As someone who is down here, on the ground in Arizona, I can tell you that people tend to have similar concerns on their minds, such as fentanyl, inflation, and abortion. Leaders who are willing to work together on those issues will ultimately prevail, especially in a collaborative body like the U.S. Senate.
Masters leaving the door open now is hopefully a behavior that will continue if he gets elected, as there need to be more people in politics who are willing to start conversations rather than shutting them down.
In Arizona, a successful Republican coalition requires support from the populist base, as well as turnout from Independents and more traditional Republican voters. If a candidate cannot check those boxes, they’re bound to struggle. These endorsements for Masters won’t guaranteed Republican votes, but they certainly don’t hurt in a general election cycle.
The base always comes home, so even those who are critical of Masters should applaud his ability to develop as wide of a coalition as possible ahead of Election Day.