Blake Masters’ AZ Senate Race Faces Millions More in Advertising Cuts From McConnell-Backed Super PAC – Opinion

Senate Leadership Fund is a Super PAC that aligns with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It announced almost $10 million worth of advertising cancellations in Arizona, and Alaska. Already, the Super PAC announced $13.5 million in cancelations for Arizona ($3.5 Million), Wisconsin ($2.5 Million), Nevada ($1.5million), and Pennsylvania ($7.5M).

These cuts come after McConnell made comments about “candidate quality” and forecasted that flipping the House may be more likely than picking up the one seat neede tod flip the Senate for Republicans in November. Former President Donald Trump harshly criticized McConnell for his comments, and McConnell has remained in Trump’s crosshairs, as My RedState colleague, Brandon Morse reported on Friday.

Another $8 million of advertising has been canceled in Arizona where Trump-endorsed Blake Masters, R (R), is currently trailing incumbent Mark Kelly (D). The Fox News poll of August 18 revealed that Kelly led Masters 8 points. Masters ads had been scheduled for after Labor Day. Now they will start in October.

Steven Law, President of Senate Leadership Fund said that changes in the Senate were due in part to $28 million in advertising in J.D. Vance’s Ohio race. Law stated that the Alaska spending reductions were an indication of confidence in incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski (R), pushing back advertising’s start date.

CNBC reported Friday that Masters was being pressured by GOP leaders and major donors to raise additional money. According to Federal Election Commission data, Masters raised $4 million while Kelly raised over $54 million. This report states,

In recent weeks, Masters was contacted by Sen. Rick Scott, R.Fla. who is the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s head. These individuals explained. The NRSC is the official campaign arm for the Senate GOP, and has spent over $6 million taking on Masters’ rival Kelly, according to data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.

A person familiar with one of the recent calls to Masters said a veteran GOP financier “read him the riot act” and told him, in part, that he must start raising money from more wealthy Republican donors and stop relying on billionaire tech executive Peter Thiel, his longtime colleague and friend, to help him like he did in the primary. The people did not want to identify themselves in private conversations.

A spokesperson for the Masters campaign, Katie Miller, denied that any GOP funder read the candidate “the riot act”, saying,

“It didn’t happen.”

Chris Hartline of the NRSC said that Scott called Masters and asked him to help with his fundraising. Interestingly enough, although the NRSC doesn’t have advertising reserved for Arizona in October or November (which is when the SLF ads are slated for launch), it does so within that time frame. Additionally, it was reported that OneNation, the public policy arm of the SLF Super-Pac is putting $10 million into tv, digital and radio adertising in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin, signaling they have not lost interest in AZ’s Senate race.

Blake Masters continues to show confidence in his campaign, tweeting Friday, “Enjoy a wonderful weekend, we are sure to win.”

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