Politics N


GOP Races Up for Grabs in Arizona Primary


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Candidates try to capture the Trump base without alienating crucial independent voters in November.


T BY DONALD T. CRITCHLOW


here’s not much left of the Old West in Arizona, but Republicans are, never- theless, having a good old-


fashioned shootout ahead of the Aug. 2 primary. All races are up for grabs. “Every


primary in this state is anyone’s for the taking,” says Kristy Dohnel, who works for the Arizona Republican Party. The key, she adds, will be win-


ning the base and then going into the general election and grabbing independents, the largest voter bloc in the state. Much of this independent vote


appears to be anti-Trump. So Repub- lican candidates will have to balance winning both grassroots Trump vot- ers and anti-Trump independents. No mean task. As things stand, all Republican candidates support Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda of border


38 NEWSMAX | MAY 2022


security, empowering parents in edu- cation, beefi ng up local police, and ending identity politics. The number one issue for Repub-


lican voters is voter integrity. With few exceptions, all the candidates are running as outsiders. The Republican base is fi red up. Registrations are up, despite 5,000 Republican voters shifting to inde- pendent after the Jan. 6 pro- tests. These desertions came mostly from suburban voters who were not Trump enthusiasts in the fi rst place. More star-


tling, though, is the bleeding by the Democrats. The number of registered Democrat voters in the state has dropped by 10,362, giving Republicans the lead with 137,124 more registered voters. Republican primary candidates


have to mobilize fervent Trump grassroots activists and win over moderate and independent vot- ers who want to move on past the 2020 election and hammer on infl a- tion, rising gas and housing prices, increased crime, and border security. Democrats want the 2022 mid-


term election to be about Trump. Although Arizona party lead-


ers have urged Trump to not get involved endorsing candidates, he has publicly backed two Republi- cans: Kari Lake for governor and Mark Finchem for secretary of state. At the same time, he’s taken aim


at Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelley. Brnovich incurred Trump’s wrath when, as state attorney gen- eral, he certifi ed Biden the winner in Arizona in 2020. Polls show just how contested


each race is, as revealed in this recent Data Orbital poll taken in February. Except for Lake for gover- nor, “undecided” far outpolls all the candidates. Whatever damage Trump has


infl icted on Brnovich, he still leads the pack with 21% of the Republi- can vote. Still, his numbers have dropped since December. His challengers, specifi cally Jim


Lamon, a billionaire entrepreneur, has fl ooded the airways with hard- hitting spots while Brnovich has avoided campaigning and focused instead on cable news interviews. Trump is not enthusiastic about Lamon, and he made it a point at a recent rally in Florence, Arizona, to give a


shoutout to another senatorial can- didate, Blake Masters, deliberately avoiding mentioning Lamon. Masters, a techie who is close to billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who


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