Blake Masters is reportedly entering the Arizona Senate race in 2024, giving the hard-line conservative another shot at national politics following his loss in 2022.
Masters is expected to announce his campaign in the coming weeks, sources told the Wall Street Journal. His entry will bring additional tension to a crowded and fiery competition in the bid for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema‘s (I-AZ) seat.
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Arizona, which President Joe Biden narrowly won by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, is one of six presidential swing states that will have a large say in who wins next November’s election. Sinema’s seat is considered a toss-up, giving Republicans a chance to make up for their losses in the 2022 midterm elections and possibly win control of the Senate.
Sinema hasn’t announced whether she is running for reelection. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is running for her seat, so a Republican entry could turn it into a high-stakes three-way race. On the GOP primary side, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is the only one to have launched a campaign.
Masters entering the race could also set him up to face former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a firebrand conservative who lost in 2022 to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ). Lake has emerged as the front-runner for the Republican Arizona Senate primary without launching a campaign.
Lake said she would make her decision about a Senate run by the end of 2023, with an announcement expected to come in the fall — setting up the possibility that Masters and Lake could be launching their campaigns around the same time. Lake is popular among hard-line conservatives, but establishment Arizona Republicans are wary about selecting her as their party’s choice for senator, fearing a repeat of 2022.
Masters and Lake ran their 2022 platforms on bolstering the Republican Party’s right wing and on former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Most of the candidates Trump endorsed in the midterm elections defeated their GOP primary opponents but lost to Democrats in the general election.
Lake claims that election fraud cost her the 2022 election, a tactic used consistently by Trump regarding his loss in 2020, and has not conceded her loss for governor. Masters questioned the results of the 2020 election but conceded his 2022 loss. He said he supports Trump’s candidacy for president in 2024.
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Trump continues to hold a tight grip on Arizona, particularly among his fellow GOP presidential candidates. A Noble Predictive Insights poll released on Aug. 24 showed that 50% of registered Arizona Republicans are most likely to support Trump in the primary, followed by 19% saying they would support Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
It is unclear who Trump would support in the Arizona Senate Republican primary. Similar to 2022, an endorsement from Trump would likely be the key to winning the GOP primary in 2024 but could risk pushing independents and centrist Republicans away in the general election.
