Arizona GOP Primary Turns Ugly as Blake Masters Highlights Opponent’s Muslim Faith with Picture of Him in Mecca

Isaac SchorrApr 3rd, 2024, 4:06 pm
 

The race to represent the GOP in Arizona’s eighth congressional district has turned ugly.

Blake Masters and Abraham Hamadeh, who unsuccessfully ran in 2022 for the Senate and to be the state’s attorney general, respectively, are now facing off against each other for the Republican nomination there.

It’s easy to see why they both covet the slot. The incumbent Republican congresswoman, Rep. Debbie Lesko, won reelection with 96.5% of the vote in the same year the Masters and Hamadeh lost.

But even still, Masters’s latest ad demonstrated his willingness to take his gloves off in pursuit of victory, which has proven elusive to him.

“What does dishonest Abe Hamadeh believe?” asks the ad’s narrator as a picture of Hamadeh with minarets in the background is shown onscreen. He continues:

Dishonest Abe supported Chuck Schumer’s amnesty bill, maybe because Abe’s parents were illegal immigrants. Dishonest Abe said women have the right to abort their babies. Dishonest Abe supported cuts to Social Security, Medicare and the military. Dishonest Abe said America was founded on Islamic principles. He even said Israel was behind 9/11. Arizona can’t trust dishonest Abe Hamadeh.

The video also feature images of Hamadeh in Mecca wearing an Ihram.

Reacting to the ad, Hamadeh posted a clip from the 2012 comedy The Campaign, featuring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, in which one candidate contemplates running an ad comparing his opponent to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban because he has facial hair.

Hamadeh has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who backed Masters in his 2022 primary race.

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