Former President Donald Trump's endorsement continues to be political gold, as evidenced in a slew of GOP primary contests on Tuesday.
In Arizona, Trump endorsed a pair of high-profile candidates: Blake Masters, a former chief operating officer of the investment firm Thiel Capital, handily won his primary election in a race called Tuesday night by The Associated Press.
Masters beat out businessman Jim Lamon, state Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Michael McGuire, a retired National Guard major general, among others. Trump endorsed Masters in June, during which time the candidate said he had enough concerns about the 2020 election results in his state to have objected had he already been serving in the Senate.
COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT pic.twitter.com/T02CPKYRRp
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) June 27, 2022
“I think what [Sen. Josh] Hawley and I believe, what [Sen. Ted] Cruz did was right,” Masters told NBC News, according to NPR. “I think their constituents had a lot of concerns.”
Following Masters' victory, the Arizona Republican Party was quick to congratulate him.
“Congratulations to Blake on winning the Republican primary in Arizona. Blake fought hard against several well-qualified GOP candidates. He’s a great candidate who’s well-positioned to beat Mark Kelly in November,” the state party’s chairman, Rick Scott, said in a statement published on the party’s website.
“D.C. Darling Mark Kelly has completely abandoned Arizona. He votes with Joe Biden over 94% of the time while hardworking Arizonans are being crushed by soaring prices and the Biden-Kelly border crisis,” Scott continued.
“Arizonans literally can’t afford 6 more years of Mark Kelly’s reckless agenda. Blake Masters will take on Joe Biden and D.C. Democrats. He’ll fight to secure the border and lower prices. Come November, Arizonans are going to reject the Biden-Kelly agenda and send Blake Masters to the United States Senate,” he added.
As of this writing, Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was leading her next closest GOP rival, Arizona Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson, but by fewer than 12,000 votes with some 120,000 still left to count in Maricopa County, the state's largest and home to Phoenix, where Lake worked as a newscaster for decades.
Breaking ?@KariLake PULLS AHEAD IN AZ. @RSBNetwork ?? pic.twitter.com/84R1i35g9r
— Brian Glenn (@brianglenntv) August 3, 2022
In Michigan, meanwhile, Rep. Peter Meijer, an Iraq War vet who was just elected to his first term in 2020, lost his GOP primary to a conservative challenger backed by the former president and whose campaign was also funded in large part by Democrats.
John Gibbs has become the Republican nominee running in Michigan’s 3rd District in November, according to the New York Post, which added:
Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump over last year’s Capitol riot — and who was targeted for defeat by Trump as a result — conceded early Wednesday with results showing Gibbs ahead by almost 4,000 votes with more than 88% of the expected ballots counted.
“This was a hard-fought primary campaign and I want to thank everyone in west Michigan for their support. … I also want to congratulate my opponent, John Gibbs, on his victory tonight,” Meijer said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press.
“I’m proud to have remained true to my principles, even when doing so came at a significant political cost,” he noted further.
Conservative Brief notes further:
Gibbs worked for the Trump administration at Housing and Urban Development, which was run by Dr. Ben Carson, who served the former president’s entire term.
Just got a call from President Trump, congratulating me and my team on tonight’s big win! Thank you, Mr. President for your support! pic.twitter.com/43BZfvqBEo
— John Gibbs for MI-3 (@votejohngibbs) August 3, 2022
Gibbs noted on Twitter that Trump called “congratulating me and my team on tonight’s big win!”
Trump's endorsement in the vast majority of cases is the political equivalent of the Midas touch.
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