Roger Sollenberger
Wed, August 3, 2022
Rebecca Noble/Reuters
Venture capitalist turned upstart Senate candidate Blake Masters easily won the Arizona Republican primary on Tuesday, racking up another victory for candidates backed by former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Peter Thiel.
Masters, a 35-year-old Bitcoin hawk with no political experience, rode Trump’s late-game support to a come-from-behind win, after failing for months to woo swing state conservatives with a steady stream of radical and at times dystopian right-wing rhetoric threaded with anti-immigrant and racist tropes.
In the end, Masters outperformed runner-up Arizona energy mogul Jim Lamon. Masters will now face incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in the general election.
Peter Thiel Invests Big in Firms His Favorite Candidates Love to Hate
For months, the Arizona race showed no clear frontrunner, but after escalating his election denialism to score Trump’s endorsement in June, Masters surged. By primary time, he was resting on a double-digit lead.
By contrast, JD Vance—another Trump-Thiel pick—claimed less than one in three Ohio Republicans in May. Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt, a Senate candidate who received Thiel money and an ambiguous endorsement from Trump, also won his GOP Senate nomination Tuesday night, though Trump was less than clear about who he was actually endorsing in the race.
Masters, who grew up in Arizona, had recently returned to the state after years in the Bay Area, where he worked under Thiel’s wing as COO of Thiel Capital. He entered the race rating relatively low in name recognition, especially compared to Arizona Attorney General turned Trump nemesis Mark Brnovich. But Masters adopted a native advertising approach to publicity, and quickly began accumulating earned media as a polarizing provocateur.
His success, however, came as a surprise to many. At the beginning, Masters’ outsider platform appeared like a strange fit for Arizonans. He leaned heavily on abstract “new right” political theory, anti-immigrant fear bait, longform podcast interviews, and niche, largely untested policy proposals (like a “strategic reserve” of Bitcoin)—an odd match for the swing state’s typical voter profile.
Still, thanks in large part to Trump, the tech investor was able to lock up enough votes to offset, or possibly win over, his stiffest competition: Arizona’s sizable population of suburban moderates and retirees.
Blake Masters’ Views on Gay Marriage May Surprise His Political Master Peter Thiel
While Masters—a thirtysomething Bitcoin millionaire and Silicon Valley transplant who was dogged throughout his campaign by allegations of racism, hypocritical corporate and technocratic cronyism, and veiled anti-semitism—might seem an unlikely flagbearer for that all-important demographic, those voters will only become more critical as the general election approaches. There, Masters must overcome a popular Democratic moderate in Kelly, an effort that may force Masters to soften his rhetoric.
He’ll have to balance that against the Trump brand if he wants to energize the grassroots, because if fundraising is any measure of enthusiasm, Masters has a steep hill to climb. Almost all of his financial firepower has come from a group entirely separate from his campaign—a super PAC mainly fueled by Thiel’s whopping $15 million investment. The bulk of the super PAC’s other high-dollar contributions come from executives in tech and financial sectors, most of them bearing some connection to the crypto world.
But Arizonans have simply not opened their pocketbooks. Exactly four of the super PAC’s fifty-plus donors hail from Arizona, according to FEC data. And of his campaign’s $5 million, more than 90 percent comes from out-of-state, with Californians accounting for about one in every five dollars. In fact, Masters has given more money to his campaign than Arizona citizens have—his $680,000 in personal loans outweigh his total in-state contributions by about $200,000. His latest loan, in July—more than four months after he claimed to resign from Thiel’s company—still lists his employer as Thiel Capital.
But Masters received loads of free airtime from another powerful ally—the most influential media figure in conservative politics, Fox News entertainer Tucker Carlson. The late-night host quickly recognized a fellow traveler in Masters’ nationalist agenda, offering full-throated support and numerous appearances on his program, the most watched show in cable news history. (Brnovich, by contrast, got the support of Carlson’s late-night colleague Sean Hannity.)
Blake Masters Blames Gun Violence on ‘Black People, Frankly’
But the same nationalist rhetoric that appealed to the Carlson crowd—resounding with the false “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory embraced by white supremacists—attracted more controversial supporters, including Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi publication The Daily Stormer.
Anglin gave Masters his “forceful endorsement” in June, following a viral incident at a campaign event where Masters appeared to grab a 73-year-old protester by the neck and push him out of the room. Last month, Masters rejected Anglin’s support, saying he had “never” heard of Anglin and dismissing news reports of the endorsement as part of an effort to “smear anybody who believes in common sense border security as some kind of ‘Nazi.’”
Ultimately, Masters’ media savvy overcame the substantive support that top immigration officials threw behind his top competitor, Lamon, who received endorsements from former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, along with the former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the former Chief of the Border Patrol.
Masters reaped endorsements from TV officials like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).
But despite staking out positions on immigration, guns, abortion, and gay marriage that poll well outside the main, the tech entrepreneur has made a “guarantee” that he will beat Kelly, a former Navy pilot and astronaut, by “five points.”
“‘Oh, I’m an astronaut. Have you heard I’m an astronaut?’” Masters said at an event in April, as reported by Mother Jones. “‘You know, when I’m on the space station and I look at that big blue ball I realize we’re all in it together.’ And it’s like, ‘Shut up, Mark.’”
But Masters will also have to overcome his own baseless theory that Democrats are using immigration policy to stack the electoral deck.
“Obviously, the Democrats, they hope to just change the demographics of our country,” he said in an April podcast interview. “They hope to import an entirely new electorate. Then they call you a racist and a bigot.”
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Blake Masters, ultra-MAGA Republican who blamed gun violence on 'Black people,' wins Arizona Senate primary
Andrew Romano
·West Coast Correspondent
Wed, August 3, 2022
Republican candidate for Senate Blake Masters speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar on July 31, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Blake Masters, an ultra-MAGA candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the marquee GOP Senate primary in Arizona Tuesday night, setting up a general-election showdown with his more traditional Democratic rival that will test whether the way to win a key swing state in 2022 is by channeling the animosities of the far right — or by trying to appeal to a broader coalition.
With more than 70% of precincts reporting, Masters —a 35-year-old “anti-progressive” venture capitalist propelled to the front of a crowded primary field by at least $15 million in super PAC funding from powerful Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, his longtime boss and mentor — clinched his party’s U.S. Senate nomination early Wednesday morning, defeating wealthy solar power executive Jim Lamon and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
On Election Day, Masters will face off against incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly in a race that will help determine control of the closely divided Senate.
After midnight, a second MAGA candidate, state Rep. Mark Finchem, also won the GOP nomination for Arizona secretary of state. And a third, former Phoenix news anchor Kari Lake, was locked in a close battle for the party's gubernatorial nod with her establishment rival, real estate developer Karrin Taylor Robson.
"We won today seven-out-of-10 Election Day votes,” Lake told her supporters Tuesday night, claiming — erroneously — that "there is no path to victory for my opponent and we won this race. Period.”
Lake also alleged that "if we don’t win, there’s some cheating going on" — a possible hint that she could challenge the results in the days ahead.
Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona Kari Lake speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar on July 31, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Both Lake and Finchem have parroted Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — and vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent another Trump loss in the future. Masters has also declared that “Trump won in 2020.”
For all three election deniers, these displays of fealty were sufficient to snag Trump’s sought-after support, which he bestowed in person at a July 22 rally in Prescott Valley.
On the same day, Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence was campaigning across the state for Robson, who has refused to say the 2020 election was rigged. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey — another prominent Republican who, like Pence, resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 result — also endorsed Robson, along with Finchem’s main rival, Beau Lane.
If Lake ultimately joins Finchem and Masters on the winner’s podium, they would cement a Trump sweep in the Grand Canyon State — and combine to form perhaps the most pro-MAGA slate of candidates anywhere in America.
But the problem for Republicans is that Arizona is hardly America’s most pro-MAGA state.
“With the national mood turning so strongly against the Biden administration and Democratic control of Congress, Republican candidates should have a relatively easy time recapturing seats in Arizona this cycle,” says Robert Robb, a longtime columnist for the Arizona Republic and former GOP political consultant. “But these candidates are weak candidates. Whatever this ‘new right’ thing is, I don’t think that it necessarily fits Arizona.”
Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State, waves to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a Save America rally Friday, July 22, 2022, in Prescott, Ariz.
(Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)
From Pennsylvania to Georgia to Nevada, GOP primary voters have repeatedly rankled Republican strategists and delighted their Democratic counterparts this year by nominating candidates who could prove too extreme to be electable — and who risk blowing otherwise very winnable midterm contests because of it.
From Pennsylvania to Georgia to Nevada, GOP primary voters have repeatedly rankled Republican strategists and delighted their Democratic counterparts this year by nominating candidates who could prove too extreme to be electable — and who risk blowing otherwise very winnable midterm contests because of it.
Arizona is now ground zero for this phenomenon — and Masters is Exhibit A.
His MAGA transformation has been total. Before 2016, Masters was a purist libertarian who persuaded friends to become pro-choice, described the borders between countries as just “line[s] in the sand” and favored “unrestricted” immigration. At 19, he wrote an essay that approvingly quoted Nazi leader Hermann Goering to argue that the “U.S. hasn’t been involved in a just war in over 140 years.” (Responding to a recent Jewish Insider story about that essay, written in opposition to the Iraq War and published on the website of radical libertarian Lew Rockwell, Masters admitted he “went too far.”)
At Stanford Law, Masters took a course on startups taught by Thiel, then a libertarian himself — and a Silicon Valley outlier. Galvanized by Thiel’s contrarian thinking, Masters posted his detailed class notes on Tumblr; David Brooks wrote an entire New York Times column about them. Then Thiel and Masters spun those same notes into a book called “Zero to One.” Masters spent the next eight years serving in top positions at Thiel’s foundation and venture capital firm. In 2016, Thiel backed Trump, and Masters followed him to Trump Tower to help with the transition after the election.
The key lesson of Thiel’s course — “Instead of being slightly better than everybody else in a crowded and established field,” as Brooks put it, “it’s often more valuable to create a new market and totally dominate it” — appears to be the strategy behind Masters’ campaign as well.
“I definitely approach politics with an entrepreneurial lens,” Masters told the Stanford Review last September. “President Trump showed me that new things are possible in politics. You can think of his administration as a start-up of sorts. It was disruptive. … I think sounding different and looking different is how you break through.”
Former President of the United States Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the America First Agenda Summit hosted by America First Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., United States on July 26, 2022. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
To that end — breaking through by sounding "different" — Masters has cradled a short-barreled rifle in one ad while declaring that it “wasn’t designed for hunting.” “This,” he said “is designed to kill people.”
He has characterized the Democrats who are “running the country” — “Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Mark Kelly” — as “psychopaths.” He has embraced a national abortion ban. He has touted the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, as a "subversive thinker [who is] underrated". He has said he wants to slash legal immigration in half because “we do not need hundreds of thousands of people from India and China to come in every year to take coding jobs.” He has promoted the conspiracy theory that Democrats are plotting to win elections by “importing” immigrants to replace native-born voters. He has called Jan. 6 a "false flag operation," claiming that “one-third of the people outside of the Capitol complex on January 6 were actual FBI agents hanging out." And he has blamed “Black people, frankly” for America’s “gun violence problem.”
The question now is whether this MAGA-centric strategy will work as well in Arizona’s general election as it worked in the GOP primary. So far, general-election polling is scant — but Kelly tends to lead Masters by double-digit margins in the most recent soundings.
The irony, says Robb, is that the thing that has so radicalized Arizona Republicans is the very thing that could doom them in November: the closeness of the state's elections.
One-third of Arizona voters are Latino; one-third are independents. In the Trump Era, those dynamics seem to have pushed the one-time Republican stronghold away from Trumpism, not toward it.
“Arizona rejected Trump and Trumpism — big time,” explains Robb. “From 2008 until 2018 Arizona had not elected a single Democrat to statewide office. In 2018, we elected a Democratic U.S. Senator, two Democratic statewide officers [including Hobbs], and Republicans lost their advantage in the legislature. They now have the thinnest margin that they've had during that entire period. And of course Trump himself barely won in 2016 before losing in 2020.”
“There’s a model of what would make this election a slam dunk for Republicans — which is, you don't run against Trump, but you run independent of Trump,” Robb continues. “But Republicans are not doing that. They're embracing Trump and Trumpism, comprehensively. Biden and his administration should be on the ballot this election cycle. But these candidates are putting Trump on the ballot — and he does not play well in Arizona.”
Trump and Thiel Tag-Team Arizona GOP Primary to Boost Blake Masters
Mark Niquette
Tue, August 2, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel are aiming for a second Republican primary victory as they work to bolster 2020 election denier Blake Masters in Arizona’s US Senate contest.
Trump’s endorsement and $15 million from Thiel to a super political action committee backing Masters have helped him emerge as the front-runner in polls over solar power company founder Jim Lamon and Attorney General Mark Brnovich in the fractured GOP primary to face Senator Mark Kelly in a November race that will help determine party control of the upper chamber.
“If you want to win a Republican primary, having money and Trump’s endorsement is a great combination,” said pollster Robert Cahaly of the Atlanta-based Trafalgar Group.
A Masters primary win would follow a victory for Trump and Thiel in May helping venture capitalist and author JD Vance win a crowded Republican US Senate primary in Ohio.
Trump publicly endorsed Masters, 35, in June and then held a July 22 rally for him and his other endorsed candidates in Arizona, including gubernatorial aspirant Kari Lake.
Recent polling, including Cahaly’s last survey of the race conducted July 25-27, showed Masters with a lead over Lamon, with Brnovich lagging and retired Air Force General Michael McGuire and former state representative Justin Olson in the single digits.
Masters has touted Trump’s backing, parroted the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and voicing his staunch opposition to illegal immigration, a hot-button issue in the border state.
The GOP winner will face Kelly, a former astronaut and businessman who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination and in 2020 won a special election that flipped the seat by defeating appointed incumbent Senator Martha McSally, a Republican.
Trump’s involvement in primaries has clouded Republicans’ prospects to take control of the evenly divided Senate. Vance is mired in a tight race against Democratic US Representative Tim Ryan in Republican-leaning Ohio.
In Pennsylvania, polls show Trump-backed Mehmet Oz trailing Democrat Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman to replace retiring US Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican. Herschel Walker, Trump’s pick for US Senate in Georgia, also trails incumbent Democrat US Senator Raphael Warnock.
Masters, who ran Thiel’s private foundation and venture capital fund until March, has been criticized for past inflammatory comments, including an April 11 podcast interview in which he blamed gun violence on “black people, frankly.” In college writings, he questioned US involvement in World War II. He also has supported the “replacement theory” pushed by white nationalists and supremacists.
Lamon, who contends that there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election, has largely self-financed his campaign with $14 million and has led the GOP field in spending on advertising for the primary, with $12.3 million, according to AdImpact.
He’s promoted himself as “an America First conservative” -- a reference to Trump’s mantra -- and also run an ad with people wearing Trump and Lamon campaign apparel saying the former president “made a mistake” endorsing Masters.
Lamon, who said he sold the DEPCOM Power Inc. company he founded to a unit of Koch Industries Inc. last year to focus on his Senate campaign, also has a website attacking Masters as “fake” that says, “California Big Tech is spending $15 million trying to make Fake Blake Masters seem conservative.”
The Saving Arizona PAC supporting Masters, funded with the $15 million from Thiel and $100,000 each from Bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has spent 10 times the amount on advertising for the primary as Masters’s campaign, $10.9 million to $1.9 million, according to AdImpact.
Thiel also contributed $15 million to a super PAC backing Vance in Ohio. Representatives for Thiel and Trump didn’t immediately responded to messages left for comment.
Club For Growth Action, which played a major role helping Representative Ted Budd win North Carolina’s US Senate GOP primary, also spent $1.4 million on ads touting Trump’s endorsement of Masters over Lamon, according to AdImpact. Additionally, the Crypto Freedom PAC spent $2.4 million supporting Masters and attacking Lamon.
Stan Barnes, a former Arizona state senator and GOP political consultant, said the race -- which has been marked by a flood of negative ads -- will be competitive. But Masters had the Trump endorsement and the money to amplify that with primary voters.
“In a confused and ugly primary, the thing that stands out is the Trump endorsement,” Barnes said.
Still, support by Masters and Lamon for Trump’s false election claims could hurt them with independent voters in a general election race against Kelly, said Phoenix-based pollster Paul Bentz.
Arizona has become more of a swing state in recent years, and Kelly, a former astronaut, would be favored against Masters or Lamon because he’s solid with the Democratic base and appeals to swing voters, according to Mike Noble, chief of research for OH Predictive Insights.
“He’s in the best position he could ask for, given how bad the environment is for Democrats right now,” Noble said.
Mark Niquette
Tue, August 2, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel are aiming for a second Republican primary victory as they work to bolster 2020 election denier Blake Masters in Arizona’s US Senate contest.
Trump’s endorsement and $15 million from Thiel to a super political action committee backing Masters have helped him emerge as the front-runner in polls over solar power company founder Jim Lamon and Attorney General Mark Brnovich in the fractured GOP primary to face Senator Mark Kelly in a November race that will help determine party control of the upper chamber.
“If you want to win a Republican primary, having money and Trump’s endorsement is a great combination,” said pollster Robert Cahaly of the Atlanta-based Trafalgar Group.
A Masters primary win would follow a victory for Trump and Thiel in May helping venture capitalist and author JD Vance win a crowded Republican US Senate primary in Ohio.
Trump publicly endorsed Masters, 35, in June and then held a July 22 rally for him and his other endorsed candidates in Arizona, including gubernatorial aspirant Kari Lake.
Recent polling, including Cahaly’s last survey of the race conducted July 25-27, showed Masters with a lead over Lamon, with Brnovich lagging and retired Air Force General Michael McGuire and former state representative Justin Olson in the single digits.
Masters has touted Trump’s backing, parroted the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and voicing his staunch opposition to illegal immigration, a hot-button issue in the border state.
The GOP winner will face Kelly, a former astronaut and businessman who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination and in 2020 won a special election that flipped the seat by defeating appointed incumbent Senator Martha McSally, a Republican.
Trump’s involvement in primaries has clouded Republicans’ prospects to take control of the evenly divided Senate. Vance is mired in a tight race against Democratic US Representative Tim Ryan in Republican-leaning Ohio.
In Pennsylvania, polls show Trump-backed Mehmet Oz trailing Democrat Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman to replace retiring US Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican. Herschel Walker, Trump’s pick for US Senate in Georgia, also trails incumbent Democrat US Senator Raphael Warnock.
Masters, who ran Thiel’s private foundation and venture capital fund until March, has been criticized for past inflammatory comments, including an April 11 podcast interview in which he blamed gun violence on “black people, frankly.” In college writings, he questioned US involvement in World War II. He also has supported the “replacement theory” pushed by white nationalists and supremacists.
Lamon, who contends that there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election, has largely self-financed his campaign with $14 million and has led the GOP field in spending on advertising for the primary, with $12.3 million, according to AdImpact.
He’s promoted himself as “an America First conservative” -- a reference to Trump’s mantra -- and also run an ad with people wearing Trump and Lamon campaign apparel saying the former president “made a mistake” endorsing Masters.
Lamon, who said he sold the DEPCOM Power Inc. company he founded to a unit of Koch Industries Inc. last year to focus on his Senate campaign, also has a website attacking Masters as “fake” that says, “California Big Tech is spending $15 million trying to make Fake Blake Masters seem conservative.”
The Saving Arizona PAC supporting Masters, funded with the $15 million from Thiel and $100,000 each from Bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has spent 10 times the amount on advertising for the primary as Masters’s campaign, $10.9 million to $1.9 million, according to AdImpact.
Thiel also contributed $15 million to a super PAC backing Vance in Ohio. Representatives for Thiel and Trump didn’t immediately responded to messages left for comment.
Club For Growth Action, which played a major role helping Representative Ted Budd win North Carolina’s US Senate GOP primary, also spent $1.4 million on ads touting Trump’s endorsement of Masters over Lamon, according to AdImpact. Additionally, the Crypto Freedom PAC spent $2.4 million supporting Masters and attacking Lamon.
Stan Barnes, a former Arizona state senator and GOP political consultant, said the race -- which has been marked by a flood of negative ads -- will be competitive. But Masters had the Trump endorsement and the money to amplify that with primary voters.
“In a confused and ugly primary, the thing that stands out is the Trump endorsement,” Barnes said.
Still, support by Masters and Lamon for Trump’s false election claims could hurt them with independent voters in a general election race against Kelly, said Phoenix-based pollster Paul Bentz.
Arizona has become more of a swing state in recent years, and Kelly, a former astronaut, would be favored against Masters or Lamon because he’s solid with the Democratic base and appeals to swing voters, according to Mike Noble, chief of research for OH Predictive Insights.
“He’s in the best position he could ask for, given how bad the environment is for Democrats right now,” Noble said.
