Mitch McConnell Aligned Super PAC Cancels Millions in Ad Buys For Trump-Backed Blake Masters in Arizona

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The GOP’s Senate primary Super Pac is canceling some $10 million worth of ad buys in both Arizona and Alaska, sounding alarm bells for Blake Masters’s campaign to unseat incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

Politico reported Friday, “The Senate Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is scrapping roughly $8 million in ads — about half of its initial Arizona reservation — that were supposed to start in the early fall. The group’s ads are now set to begin in early October.”

Arizona is a key pick-up for McConnell and the GOP to reclaim the majority in the U.S. Senate. The PAC announced last week it would pump some $28 million into Ohio’s senate race, where Trump-backed J.D. Vance running very close to Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) — a race many pundits and insiders did not expect to be competitive.

Both Vance and Masters were heavily funded in their respective GOP primaries by Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel and received the endorsement of Trump.

In Alaska, Politico notes, the cutting of $1.7 million in ads for incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a sign the GOP is feeling confident in her chances for reelection.

The Politico report noted concerns over Masters’s polling against the well-funded moderate Kelly and coincided with CNBC reporting GOP mega-donors are berating Masters for his lackluster fundraising.

Brian Schwartz reported Friday, “A person familiar with one of the recent calls to Masters said a veteran GOP financier ‘read him the riot act’ and told him, in part, that he must start raising money from more wealthy Republican donors and stop relying on billionaire tech executive Peter Thiel, his longtime colleague and friend, to help him like he did in the primary.”

So far this cycle, Masters has raised a dismal $4 million compared to Kelly’s $54 million.