Blake Masters was a hardcore pro-lifer, but then came general election season.
The venture capitalist and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona won a primary earlier this month after giving voters the impression that he was pro-life. Then, Masters reversed course. He deleted mentions of his staunch pro-life positions from his campaign website last week and now supports 99% more abortions than he did when running in the Republican primary. It’s a sad betrayal that pro-lifers should not forget.
When running in the primary, Masters was an advocate for fetal personhood. He took a logical position: Human life begins at conception, so the law should protect the right to life from the moment of conception. He thought abortion should be illegal in just about every instance. If personhood laws existed, killing an unborn child would be considered murder.
Coupled with his position that Griswold v. Connecticut was wrongly decided (although he supports birth control being legal), Masters almost sounded more like an abolitionist than your normal pro-life politician.
But now, Masters is not even the standard pro-life politician. Masters sounds more like a moderate Democrat such as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on abortion now. (They both support the Hyde Amendment and oppose late-term abortions.)
Now that Masters has secured enough pro-life support to help him win a primary and an endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee in the general election, he’s running on banning just late-term abortions. Although those abortions are a problem, only about 1% of abortions are late-term.
Politicians who say these are all medically necessary and gut-wrenching decisions for the woman are wrong. Elective late-term abortions do happen in places where they’re legal, such as Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C. But nearly all abortions are wrong, and Masters is running on permitting them.
The flip-flop will not win Masters support from liberals, either. After all, his opponent, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, is pro-choice.
This is yet another blunder from an already lousy candidate. If Arizona Republicans had nominated a strong candidate, beating Kelly would be more feasible. It’s not impossible with Masters, but he presents some problems for the party in this race.
Critics are painting Masters as antisemitic. In 2006, he wrote that the United States hadn’t been involved in a just war in more than 140 years. That includes World War II, which the country joined after being bombed by Japan. On the Western front, the U.S. and its allies helped end the Holocaust by defeating Nazi Germany. And in 2010, he shared an article calling Israel the North Korea of the Middle East.
Thanks to bad candidates such as Masters, who sees no problem with flip-flopping on the important issue of abortion, Republicans might not win back the U.S. Senate. If they fail, Masters may be one of the candidates you can thank.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
