Trump endorses Blake Masters in Arizona GOP Senate main | CNN Politics

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Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters in a transfer that aides consider will give the Republican important momentum forward of the state’s August main.

Calling Masters “a fantastic modern-day thinker,” Trump praised the tech entrepreneur Thursday in a press release that underscored the candidate’s dedication to the previous President’s prime priorities – from immigration and gun rights to relitigating 2020 election.

“Blake is aware of that the “Crime of the Century” occurred, he’ll expose it and likewise, by no means let it occur once more,” Trump mentioned in a press release, referring to false claims of electoral fraud in 2020.

Masters, who can also be backed by conservative tech billionaire Peter Thiel, is working in a crowded area of GOP candidates in search of to tackle Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in November.

Trump took his time making the endorsement, surveying aides over the previous a number of months – together with some who’re working for rival candidates Mark Brnovich, the state lawyer normal, and photo voltaic vitality entrepreneur Jim Lamon. However advisers to the previous President have beforehand advised CNN the result of the Ohio Senate main in early Could was excellent news for Masters, who, like Ohio GOP Senate nominee J.D. Vance, is a outstanding Thiel acolyte.

Thiel had privately lobbied Trump to endorse Vance and Masters, along with pouring thousands and thousands into tremendous PACs supporting each males. Simply weeks earlier than Trump unveiled his endorsement of Masters, Thiel made one other $3.5 million contribution to Saving Arizona, the Masters-aligned group – on prime of an preliminary $10 million funding.

“President Trump is a good man and a visionary,” Masters mentioned in a press release launched by his marketing campaign. “It’s unbelievable to have his endorsement. I want everybody may understand how this feels.”

“Quickly we may have a younger, fearless, dynamic America First coalition within the U.S. Senate and that’s due to Donald Trump,” Masters mentioned.

Lamon mentioned that he was “particularly dissatisfied” in Trump’s endorsement of Masters and that his rival “could be shred to items” by Kelly in a normal election. A press release Thursday from Brnovich marketing campaign supervisor Brandon Urness didn’t point out the most recent growth however famous that Brnovich “intends to battle and win this Main Election and we sit up for working with President Trump to defeat Mark Kelly this fall.”

Trump’s determination to endorse Masters aligns him, on this race at the least, with the Membership for Progress, which has been at odds with the previous President in different contests. Within the Ohio GOP Senate main, for instance, the membership backed former state treasurer Josh Mandel and refused to finish its detrimental advert marketing campaign in opposition to Vance even after he earned the previous President’s endorsement.

“When Membership for Progress Motion and President Trump work collectively, actual conservatives win, and that’s precisely what’s going to occur in Arizona,” David McIntosh, president of Membership for Progress Motion, mentioned in a press release Thursday welcoming Trump’s endorsement of Masters.

However the marketing campaign arm of Senate Democrats mentioned Trump’s transfer would exacerbate divisions within the GOP main.

“Now his endorsement will solely intensify this intra-party battle, similar to it has in GOP Senate primaries throughout the nation – leaving whichever candidate limps out of their main badly broken and on the flawed aspect of the voters who will resolve the final election,” Patrick Burgwinkle, a spokersperson for the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee, mentioned in a press release.

Kelly, who gained a particular election in 2020 for the remaining two years of the late GOP Sen. John McCain’s time period, is unopposed within the Democratic main as he seeks a full six-year time period.

The Arizona main elections are scheduled for August 2.

This story has been up to date with further response and background.