Arizona Senate Loser Blake Masters Gets Cold Shoulder From Allies Hawley, Vance Ahead of Expected Second Try
Failed Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters is getting the cold shoulder from his erstwhile allies in the upper chamber of Congress ahead of his expected announcement of a redux.
Last month, it leaked that Masters, who lost to incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly by just under five points in Arizona in 2022, was laying the groundwork for another campaign in 2024. But if he does reprise his role as a candidate, Masters would likely face still more headwinds than he did during his first unsuccessful campaign.
According to a report from Business Insider, Masters’s two closest ideological matches in the Senate, J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), are not instinctually lining up behind Masters.
Vance and Masters were often compared during the 2022 cycle because of their populist views, appeals to former president Donald Trump, and the fact that both of their respective campaigns were inventions of billionaire entrepreneur and GOP donor Peter Thiel, who funded their efforts to the tune of millions of dollars.
Asked about a potential re-run of Masters in Arizona, Hawley professed to be a “big fan,” but nevertheless said he would be “really surprised” if he involved himself in the race for the seat currently occupied by Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
“I’ve got to focus on my own race is Missouri,” remarked Hawley before lamenting Masters’s loss.
Vance also had kind words about Masters, but withheld his blessing for another try at the Senate next year.
“We have not talked details about him running this cycle, but I think that he’s a great guy that has a great future in the party, and in the movement. Let’s see what he actually wants to do first, and I’ll make decisions about who I’m endorsing once candidates actually enter the race,” offered Vance.
A possible complication for Masters that could explain Hawley and Vance’s lack of enthusiasm for him this time around is that he may find himself competing with fellow MAGA superstar Kari Lake — the failed Republican nominee for governor last year — in the GOP primary.
Reports have indicated that Lake, who enjoys a close relationship with Trump, is also mulling another statewide bid, and it’s possible Vance and Hawley might want to wait to follow Trump’s lead before deciding on who to support.
If that is the case, Masters could hardly blame them. The aspiring perennial lavished praise on Trump throughout his campaign but was chastised by the former president in a phone call for not embracing his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election with the enthusiasm that Lake did.
“I heard you did great on the debate. But a bad election answer. You got a lot of support, you got to stay with those people,” said Trump. “Look at Kari, Kari is winning with very little money and if they say, ‘How is your family?’ She says, ‘The election was rigged and stolen.’ You’ll lose if you go soft, you gonna lose that base.”
