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Arizona's Blake Masters, the creepy gun whisperer and failed U.S. Senate candidate, is taking another bite at the apple, according to reports on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that Masters, a Republican, is planning to run for the Senate seat occupied by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who left the Democratic Party in late 2022. She hasn’t said whether she’ll seek re-election next year.
And Arizona Democrats can hardly contain their excitement.
“The Arizona Senate race is rapidly becoming the GOP’s worst nightmare,” the Arizona Democratic Party said in a one-sentence statement Wednesday.
They have a few reasons for optimism.
Masters, for one, is a political novice who showed in the 2022 midterms that his awkwardness and extremism could be weaponized against him.
Here’s a list of campaign lowlights I assembled after he lost his Senate race to incumbent Mark Kelly, a Democrat.
Masters praised the Unabomber, the terrorist whose violent acts spanned nearly two decades. He cited ideologues who oppose democratic governance. He suggested racial diversity at the Federal Reserve is the source of U.S. economic problems. He promoted the racist “replacement” theory that claims nonwhite migrants are part of a plot to destroy America. He blamed “Black people” for the United States’ gun violence problem. And he parroted baseless conspiracy theories about Donald Trump being cheated out of the 2020 election.
That last one is a particular point of concern for some Republicans in and outside of Arizona.
As the Journal said in its report on Masters’ apparent 2024 bid, "National and state Republicans have worried about their ability to win the state with candidates who have aligned themselves so closely with Trump and his false claims of election fraud."
Neither MSNBC nor NBC News has confirmed the reports of a Masters Senate bid. He did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal and Politico.
Arizona Democrats relished conservatives' concerns about Masters and used them to fundraise in a tweet Wednesday.
"Want to make them more worried?" the state Democratic Party wrote. "Donate."
That makes sense. High-profile election deniers flopped in Arizona during the 2022 midterm elections, and there’s a high chance Arizona's GOP Senate nominee next year will be an election denier, as well.
Along with Masters, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who’s already entered the race, has also spread false claims about the 2020 election. And so has failed 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who hasn't announced a bid for Senate but said she will make a decision before the end of the year. (It seems like she's leaning toward running.) Lake would enter the race with the most name recognition, and likely the most fervent backing from Trump-loving Republicans. But she's arguably the loudest election denier in the country today, and she's tried to drastically alter Arizona's voting process with her attempt to ban electronic voting machines.
To put it plainly, Democrats appear to like their chances of winning the Senate race in Arizona next year. And looking at the field of opponents, it's hard not to agree with them.