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Arizona’s GOP primaries are heating up as Republican rivals in the crowded Senate race accuse each other of antisemitism and being tools of China.
In one of the most closely watched political contests of the year, businessman Jim Lamon unleashed his latest salvo on Blake Masters, accusing the former Thiel Capital chief operating officer and newest Donald Trump endorsee of being an antisemite.
A 30-second commercial takes aim at Masters, who called World War II “unjust,” shared an article on Facebook that claimed Israel is “the North Korea of the Middle East,” praised the Unabomber, and favorably cited a conspiracy theorist accused of pushing the antisemitic trope that Zionist Jews are “promoting the New World Order” and “bent on world domination.” Masters also referenced a “poignant quotation” from Nazi leader Hermann Goering, according to the ad.
GOP SENATE CANDIDATE BLAKE MASTERS PAINTED AS ANTISEMITIC IN NEW AD
Not mentioned are Masters’s newest controversies.
During a May 25 appearance on the Greg Medford Show, Masters appeared to agree with the podcast host that campaign financial disclosure laws were “like Kristallnacht,” a series of pogroms unleashed in 1938 against the Jewish population in Germany by Nazi leaders.
The 35-year-old venture capitalist, backed by tech billionaire and GOP megadonor Peter Thiel, also claimed in the interview that campaign finance laws need “radical reform” because they benefit the Democratic Party. He added, without proof, that the Department of Justice is targeting him and said that the agency “would love to find a foot fault on something and all of a sudden take me out.”
During an April 11 appearance on the Jeff Oravits Show, Masters blamed “black people” for the country’s gun violence.
“We do have a gun violence problem in this country, and it’s gang violence,” he said. “It’s people in Chicago, St. Louis, shooting each other. Very often, you know, black people, frankly. And the Democrats don’t want to do anything about that.” He went on to claim that Democrats don’t like the Second Amendment because it, “frankly, blocks a lot of their plans for us.”
Masters has frequently leaned in on election conspiracy theories throughout his campaign. And though he has struggled to find footing with Republicans, his amped-up rhetoric caught the eye of the former president, who gave him his seal of approval last week.
Thiel, Masters’s biggest benefactor, put $13.5 million of his own money toward getting him elected. A super PAC backed by the billionaire launched its own attack ad against Lamon, accusing him of being pro-China. Critics say the ad feeds into the same anti-Asian American sentiment that has contributed to the rise of hate crimes of late.
TRUMP ENDORSES BLAKE MASTERS IN CROWDED ARIZONA REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY
The ad labels Lamon a liberal, claims the Chinese government sought out his firm to build four nuclear power plants, faults Lamon for buying Chinese goods, states he “sold out” American workers, and says he opposes Trump’s “get tough on China” trade policy.
Blake and Lamon are among five candidates vying for the Republican nomination. The others include Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, retired veteran Michael McGuire, and Justin Olson, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
All have cast their primary contest as a fight for the future of America and themselves as the only person capable of fixing a corrupt voting system that stole the 2020 presidential election win from Trump.
Arizona has been ground zero for election conspiracy theories following President Joe Biden’s razor-thin win in the state.
Most of the Republican candidates have cozied up to Trump, hoping his endorsement would give them the critical boost needed in a race that still has no clear front-runner.
“Arizona is a state where the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, and a very thorough audit proved it,” Trump claimed last week. “Blake knows that the ‘Crime of the Century’ took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.”
He called Masters a “great modern-day thinker” and slammed Brnovich for failing to illegally overturn the election results.
Masters scored brownie points with Trump after he attended the conspiracy theory documentary 2000 Mules at Mar-a-Lago in April. The film, created by conservative political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, documents unfounded theories of election-rigging.
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The winner of the Aug. 2 Republican primary is expected to face incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, the likely Democratic nominee. Kelly is running for a full term after winning a special election by 2 percentage points in 2020 to serve out the last two years of Sen. John McCain’s term.
Republicans are hoping that a Senate win in Arizona will help flip control of the upper chamber back to the GOP.
