(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump warned aspiring politician Blake Masters that he would lose a senate bid to former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Though Trump has generally avoided commenting on 2024 down-ballot races, he reportedly called Masters on Sunday to warn him about wasting his time with a senatorial run, according to The Hill.
Masters and Lake both allegedly lost in the 2022 election, Masters to Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Lake to now Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Neither Masters nor Lake have publicly committed to running in 2024, wherein they would likely challenge independent incumbent, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Trump has endorsed both Masters and Lake in the past, though since the 2022 election and its aftermath in Arizona, Trump has increasingly favored Lake, who has continued to insist that the election was rigged.
“If you want to get across the line, you’ve got to go stronger on that one thing,” Trump told Masters during an October 2022 phone call, according to the New York Times. “That was the one thing, a lot of complaints about it.”
Turning to specifics, Trump at the time told Masters, “Look at Kari — Kari’s winning with very little money. And if they say, ‘How is your family?’ She says, ‘The election was rigged and stolen.’ You’ll lose if you go soft. You’re going to lose that base.”
For her part, Sinema, a former Democrat, has not even announced whether or not she will run again; but if she does, the race is expected to be one of the closest in the country. She likely would face difficulties in fending off Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who recently announced his intention to run, not even to mention a Republican challenger.
Sources close to Masters said that their man wasn’t even certain he would launch a bid. “Look, I don’t think he’s running. I always thought this was a trial balloon,” a Republican operative who’s spoken with Masters about the matter told the left-leaning Daily Beast.
“Quite frankly, he’s never publicly acknowledged that he wants to get into the race,” the operative added. “There is not one comment.”
In response to the news, the Arizona Republic‘s Laurie Roberts penned an hysterical op-ed complaining at length about Trump’s “meddling” in Arizona elections, and condemning him for having the “absolute audacity needed to make that phone call.”
According to Roberts, Trump is the reason for the former Republican stronghold state’s more recent purplish hue.
“The Arizona Republican Party had a decades-old iron-fisted grip on Arizona’s two Senate seats before Donald Trump came along,” she wrote. “Not since 1988 (Dennis DeConcini) had a Democrat won a U.S. Senate election in Arizona.”
Headline USA’s Mark Pellin contributed to this report.
