AZ-SEN 2022 Megathread: Mastering the Art of the Thiel

[GregTheGreat657]

Full Article Link

Former President Trump endorsed venture capitalist Blake Masters in the GOP Senate primary in Arizona on Thursday, siding with tech billionaire and Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel, who has already spent millions of dollars to boost Masters.

In a lengthy statement announcing his endorsement, Trump praised Masters as a “great modern-day thinker” and “one of the most successful businessmen and investors in the Country.” He also made clear another reason for his endorsement: Masters’s support for Trump’s false claim that widespread voter fraud robbed him of reelection in 2020.

“Arizona is a State where the 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and a very thorough audit proved it,” Trump said. “Blake knows that the ‘Crime of the Century’ took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.”

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

I actually think Masters would be a better GE candidate than Brnovich or Lamon, but please for the love of God, can Trump stop with the "stolen election" crap.

Why would he stop? He's appealing to the dumbest segments of the population and it works. He might also genuinely believe it was stolen. Either way he wants power and is angry he lost it.

[Vosem]

Masters is basically a smarter and better-funded version of Vance, so after Trump endorsed Vance this move was pretty obvious.

(Masters is also someone I find generally more interesting than Vance as someone who has tended to avoid expressing the unpopular parts of your "populist" ideology and who has repeatedly shown an awareness of contemporary technological shifts that most politicians pay little attention to. I think his future is potentially brighter, but I guess we'll see.)

[Mr. Reactionary]

The great MAGA king has spoken.

[xavier110]

Yawn, as if he wasn’t going to endorse him. Maybe he can finally break into the 20s lol. It’s been a long slog to even chart in the teens.

[Ferguson97]

Of course Trump backs the Thiel-funded candidate.

[Schiff for Senate]

After AL and GA (hell, even PA), I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

[Vice President Christian Man]

Smart move and one which I obviously agree with. At the same time, I have some doubts that some of these more economically moderate candidates (Vance, Masters, etc.) is too good to be true and that they'll end up voting with McConnell 90% of the time. At the same time, if my doubts are incorrect which I hope they are, then the era of leaving the working class to starve is over.

[Vice President Christian Man]

After AL and GA, I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

Seeing how Brooks & Purdue did no campaigning, they were essentially DOA especially Purdue with Kemp being an incumbent. However had Trump not rescinded his endorsement, Brooks probably would've ended up being the nominee, although a runoff would've been the most likely way.

[Schiff for Senate]

After AL and GA, I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

Seeing how Brooks & Purdue did no campaigning, they were essentially DOA especially Purdue with Kemp being an incumbent. However had Trump not rescinded his endorsement, Brooks probably would've ended up being the nominee, although a runoff would've been the most likely way.

a.) Perdue - All that is true, but despite both those things, a Trump-endorsed candidate still shouldn't be losing the GOP primary by 50 points.
b.) Brooks - I don't want to call you a hack, but this really feels like wishcasting. Trump pulled back his endorsement precisely because of how terribly Brooks was doing and how evident it was that Brooks was crashing and burning. Not the other way around. You're putting the cart before the horse, the effect before the cause. Brooks got the Trump endorsement, was initially doing well, then gradually began to fall till he was far from the front-runner. Trump took back his endorsement because he didn't want to associate with a losing candidate (should've done the same thing with Perdue, Donnie boy!), and Brooks has since cratered even more. Even with Trump's endorsement, Brooks was somehow able to lose front-runner status; Trump taking back his endorsement only further exacerbated that. He was hardly on the way to victory

[Joe Republic]

After AL and GA (hell, even PA), I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

JD Vance was languishing in a distant third place in the polls, right up until Trump endorsed him on April 15th.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2022/senate/oh/ohio_senate_republican_primary-7456.html

[Schiff for Senate]

After AL and GA (hell, even PA), I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

JD Vance was languishing in a distant third place in the polls, right up until Trump endorsed him on April 15th.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2022/senate/oh/ohio_senate_republican_primary-7456.html

Fair enough. Clearly Trump's endorsements are a mix of success and failiure (one good example is also the WV02 GOP primary, where Mooney pulled it off with Trump's endorsment) - my point is that they aren't as important as once thought, because there are a good number of recent examples of it failing.

[GregTheGreat657]

After AL and GA, I'm really starting to wonder if the impact of Trump's endorsement on GOP primaries is grossly overrated at this point. I mean, Perdue lost by 50 points and lost every county in the state. And Brooks crashed and burned despite being armed with Trump's endorsement (though in all fairness, that was in part because of Brooks' horribly run campaign).

Seeing how Brooks & Purdue did no campaigning, they were essentially DOA especially Purdue with Kemp being an incumbent. However had Trump not rescinded his endorsement, Brooks probably would've ended up being the nominee, although a runoff would've been the most likely way.

Brooks was sliding in the polls, and was likely to place third if not for Trump unendorsing him giving him the kick in the teeth needed to get out and campaign to get the momentum to make the runoff

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

It won't matter Kelly has this he has lead 50/45 along with Hobbs in every poll, voters don't want to vote out incumbents when they only serve 2/6 yrs that's why NEWSOM won to finish his term👍

MCCain was a moderate Bob Dole and Nixon old guard Republican due to fact he was pro Environment he voted against ANWSR AND ARCTIC WOLD LIFE DRILLING

McSally and Blake Masters are running to the right of MCCain

[DaleCooper]

Trump has been backing a lot of ritzy elitist types. It makes the already laughable notion of Republicans being anti-establishment even more of a joke. Trumpism isn't a long-term coalition. As dumb as his voters are, eventually they'll be forced to see through the lie.

[MargieCat]

I wonder if Ducey is regretting his decision not to enter the senate race after Kemp and Raffensperger won in Georgia.

When is Arizona's filing deadline?

Ducey would easily be able to get establishment support from Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell.

[Farmlands]

Smart move and one which I obviously agree with. At the same time, I have some doubts that some of these more economically moderate candidates (Vance, Masters, etc.) is too good to be true and that they'll end up voting with McConnell 90% of the time. At the same time, if my doubts are incorrect which I hope they are, then the era of leaving the working class to starve is over.

Just like Trump promised to get better healthcare coverage for Americans, only to end up going with Ryan's randian plans that sought the opposite. As well as tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. You're only fooling yourself at this point, man.

[Indy Texas]

I have no idea what Blake Masters' version of POPULISM is even supposed to mean.

He keeps saying stuff like, "Families should be able to support themselves on a single income!"

Okay...and what is your plan for how to do that?

Does Blake Masters really believe the companies Peter Thiel invests in are creating jobs for regular people that pay them enough to support their wife and kids on that alone? Pretty much everything he touches is either solely about creating jobs for software engineers and MBAs and/or taking mundane jobs people who didn't go to college do and slicing them up into little tasks that can either be automated or done by independent contractors as "gigs" with no health insurance, retirement or guarantee of a full day's pay.

[Utah Neolib]

Honestly Blake Masters is probably a smarter campaigner than Lamon and has more Trump support than Brnovich. Honestly a smart endorsement by Trump even if I’m not exactly a fan of Thiel clones.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I wonder if Ducey is regretting his decision not to enter the senate race after Kemp and Raffensperger won in Georgia.

When is Arizona's filing deadline?

Ducey would easily be able to get establishment support from Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell.

The filing deadline was April 4.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Smart move and one which I obviously agree with. At the same time, I have some doubts that some of these more economically moderate candidates (Vance, Masters, etc.) is too good to be true and that they'll end up voting with McConnell 90% of the time. At the same time, if my doubts are incorrect which I hope they are, then the era of leaving the working class to starve is over.

Just like Trump promised to get better healthcare coverage for Americans, only to end up going with Ryan's randian plans that sought the opposite. As well as tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. You're only fooling yourself at this point, man.

Yes I admit a lot of that was wishful thinking

[HillGoose]

im always seeing signs up everywhere for that lamon guy

[Dr. MB]

Look on the bright side, maybe Trump will pardon Ted Kaczynski if he's elected in 2024.

[Devils30]

I actually think Masters would be a better GE candidate than Brnovich or Lamon, but please for the love of God, can Trump stop with the "stolen election" crap.

Masters supports a complete abortion ban nationally, he has a lot of the same flaws Doug Mastriano has on a lesser scale. Kelly also has decent approvals despite Biden’s numbers.

[xavier110]

Also, this endorsement was as much an anti Brno screed as it was pro Masters lol. Guess I’ll vote for B to annoy the Donald.