<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655219630033,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07af-de22-a173-2fff55eb0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655219630033,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07af-de22-a173-2fff55eb0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55219623", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1029292"} }); ","_id":"00000181-62c7-d590-a5f1-e2f727140000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video Embed
Arizona’s contentious Republican Senate primary isn’t until Aug. 2.
But the Senate GOP campaign arm is already trying to soften up the winner’s fall opponent, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
In an ad set to hit the airwaves Tuesday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee portrays Kelly as working in lockstep with the unpopular President Joe Biden, whose low approval ratings are already dragging down Democratic candidates.
WHITE HOUSE CONTENDS WITH DEMOCRATS HINTING IT’S TIME TO DUMP BIDEN IN 2024
“Politicians all claim they’re different,” a narrator intones at the start of the ad, followed by a clip of Kelly assuring voters that he’s “doing things differently.”
“Differently?” the narrator responds. “Last year, no U.S. senator was more politically one-sided and loyal to Joe Biden than Mark Kelly.”
The spot, seen first by the Washington Examiner, features a FiveThirtyEight assessment that Kelly voted with Biden’s agenda 100% of the time in 2021 and has voted with Biden 97% of the time so far this year.
Kelly is a top target of Republicans looking to take back control of the Senate.
Biden’s collapsing support in Arizona, which first hit a low point in April, and the continuing scrutiny of his immigration agenda in a border state have imperiled a strong incumbent.
Kelly is a strong fundraiser in a state that Biden carried in 2020.
But Biden’s margin of victory in the state was low: He won Arizona by a little more than 10,000 votes out of the more than 3 million ballots cast.
And the political landscape has shifted significantly since that narrow victory.
Still, Kelly could benefit from a protracted primary fight among Republicans.
Popular Republican Gov. Doug Ducey declined to enter the race against Kelly, and a trio of GOP candidates are battling to challenge the Democrat this fall.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, attorney Blake Masters, and businessman Jim Lamon are all fighting for the Republican nomination. Brnovich leads in most polls, but Masters appears to be gaining steam ahead of the late summer primary.
Masters secured a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump and has also enjoyed support on the airwaves from Club for Growth, an influential conservative political action committee.
The Club for Growth has aired ads taking aim at Lamon over his business dealings, although much of the pro-Masters spending has focused on confronting Brnovich, who has consistently polled higher than Lamon.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
But national Republicans are looking ahead to the fight against Kelly, who, along with Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, is a top western target for the party.
“Whether it be his faux concern about the border crisis or his self-declared independence, Mark Kelly says one thing to Arizonans but does another in the U.S. Senate,” NRSC spokesman T.W. Arrighi told the Washington Examiner. “His 97% voting record with President Biden is all the proof Arizonans need to vote him out of office.”
The NRSC’s seven-figure buy against Kelly will air the ad in Spanish, as well as English.
