Blake Masters, a former Republican Senate candidate from Arizona, launched his bid for the U.S. House in 2024 on Thursday after considering a second Senate run.
Masters, who lost to incumbent Democratic senator Mark Kelly in the 2022 midterms, is now seeking to replace Republican representative Debbie Lesko for her Phoenix-area House seat. Lesko, who represents Arizona’s eighth congressional district, announced last week she will not run for reelection come 2024.
“I’m running for Congress, to fight for Arizona’s 8th,” Masters posted Thursday on X, showcasing his wife and three sons in a video announcement. “Biden has failed. We need Trump back. We need to stop inflation, Build the Wall, avoid WW3, and secure Arizona’s water future. We need to fight for our families.”
I’m running for Congress, to fight for Arizona’s 8th.
Biden has failed. We need Trump back. We need to stop inflation, Build the Wall, avoid WW3, and secure Arizona’s water future. We need to fight for our families.
DONATE NOW to send me to the House! https://t.co/SHG8CRcJHu pic.twitter.com/atte7wNHeu
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) October 26, 2023
In making the announcement, Masters put to rest the rumors that he was intending to run for the Senate again in 2024. If he did, he would have joined Republican Senate candidates Kari Lake and Mark Lamb in vying for Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s (I.) seat. Sinema has not announced her reelection campaign at this time, and Democratic representative Ruben Gallego is also running to replace her.
It was previously reported that former president Donald Trump, to whom Masters is an ally, personally persuaded him to not run for Senate again over concerns of losing to Lake in a primary race. It seems Masters listened.
Regarding the House race, Masters will compete against former Republican attorney-general candidate Abe Hamadeh in Arizona’s GOP primary next year. When Lesko announced her retirement from Congress last week, Hamadeh took the opportunity to declare his candidacy after Lake already endorsed him.
It’s possible that Hamadeh, who lost to then-attorney-general-candidate Kris Mayes (D., Ariz.) in 2022, will perform better than Masters in the state’s 2024 Republican House primary, given the former’s far narrower defeat in one of the state’s closest elections. Hamadeh received 280 fewer votes than Mayes, while Kelly beat Masters by more than 125,000 votes.
Shortly after Masters threw his hat in the ring on Thursday, Hamadeh touted Lake’s endorsement of him last week and called out the newly announced Republican candidate for entering the race.
“It is sad to see the establishment tricking @bgmasters into driving up all the way from Tucson and getting in the race,” Hamadeh posted on X. “They want the America First movement divided. Voters will remember who stood tall against the entrenched political class and who ran into their arms.”