There are too many stories today about Democratic infighting, so ...
The only thing that could make this primary race for a House seat in Arizona more creepy and disgusting would be to insert two more creepy and disgusting creatures who each back a different candidate—that would be Trump and Vance. The race is Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, and the seat is open because incumbent Debbie Lesko is retiring. If you know her name at all, it’s only because she was a rubber stamp for Trump.
Two Republican losers are getting most of the attention, and the race has gotten just as ugly as when they both challenged and lost to Democrats in 2022. Mark Kelley beat Blake Masters for the U.S. Senate race, and Kris Mayes beat Abraham Hamadeh for Attorney General. That was a great night for Arizona Democrats, who won Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and U.S. Senate! Remember the red wave?
Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance supports Masters in the primary. That’s no surprise since they’re both spawns of billionaire nutter Peter Thiel. If people remember anything from Masters’ 2022 race against Mark Kelley, it’s probably an extremely icky ad where the gun-hugger gets his jollies shooting a pistol in the desert—for a very long time, that’s the whole ad. He traveled to Milwaukee this week to get this.
Donald Trump endorsed Blake Masters in the 2022 Senate race, just like he endorsed every other statewide loser in Arizona (although if you listen to Kari Lake, she’s the Governor). In this year’s Republican primary for CD8, however, Trump has endorsed Abraham Hamadeh who, like Kari Lake, filed a shit-ton of appeals after he lost to Kris Mayes, and they were all denied, just as Lake’s were (she filed another appeal with the Arizona Supreme Court last week, seriously).
Probably because Hamadeh and Lake share a talent for filing frivolous lawsuits that the courts toss, she’s backing him, and because Kari Lake is supporting Hamadeh, Donald Trump has endorsed him too. “No VP for you, Kari, but I’ll back your guy.”
Masters was forced by the Trump team to take down his signs and ads that said, “Trump Endorsed Masters.” Yeah, he did, in the 2022 race, not this year. Here’s where it gets even squirrellier. Look at who else is in Blake Masters’ corner, one of the guys, so we’re told, who talked Trump into selecting Vance:
So, Vance and the big game killer support Masters, and Trump’s all in for Hamadeh. Awkward! And it’s gotten really ugly, with Masters’ signs showing images that make Hamadeh look like a Muslim extremist, and Hamadeh claiming Masters joined a vegan nudist colony. It’s all lies, although I’d think more highly of Masters if he did play volleyball in the buff while munching tofu. It sure beats that 2022 gun fetish ad.
In case you haven’t had your fill of the cray, there’s a clown car of other Republicans in this primary, including Anthony Kern, an indicted fake elector who’s at the RNC and who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6; and Trent Franks, one of the most bonkers names from Arizona’s political past. I’ve shaken hands with less creepy reptiles, and most don’t have hands, that’s how creepy he is. Franks is a former congressman who resigned in 2017 after two staffers said he offered them millions of dollars to carry his child, and when they refused he retaliated. That’s when there was a House Ethics Committee that meant something.
I almost hesitate to mention the Democrat running in CD8 because he’s not crazy and I don’t want any of the above to spill onto him. But if you want to help a good guy, Gregory Whitten is a graduate of the JFK School of Government who worked in the Pentagon on nuclear defense programs, so he probably knows a lot about weapons, but I’ll doubt we’ll see him in an ad stroking one.
Please, Republicans, beat the hell out of one another, and you too Trump and Vance. In fact, J.D., maybe you can remind voters leaning toward Hamadeh what you once called the man who’s endorsing him—“America’s Hitler.” And Trump, you could say something nasty about Vance’s book, but there’s that whole reading thing ...