Morning Digest: The nastiest GOP primary in America keeps getting nastier
The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team. Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast Embedded Content Leading Off ● AZ-08: A super PAC affiliated with venture capitalist Blake Masters' longtime allies in the crypto industry are spending almost $600,000 to boost him in the July 30 Republican primary for Arizona's 8th District, a constituency in the Phoenix's western suburbs that's home to what is now the ugliest House primary in the nation. The opening spot from Defend American Jobs touts Masters as an ardent supporter of border security but does not mention his main rival and 2022 ticket-mate, Donald Trump-endorsed attorney Abe Hamadeh. (Masters was the GOP's failed nominee against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly while Hamadeh narrowly lost the race for attorney general to Kris Mayes.) That's quite a contrast from what another Master ally has been up to, though. The American Principles Project dropped over $150,000 on digital ads in the spring labeling Hamadeh a "terrorist sympathizer." Hamadeh, who told the Jerusalem Post last year that he grew up in a mixed Muslim-Druze family (the Druze are an ethnoreligious minority native to the Middle East), has also spent the last several months on the receiving end of Islamophobic commercials from Masters' own campaign. Masters has repeatedly made use of part of an online comment his rival wrote as a teenager in 2009 that included the words "America Was Founded on Islamic Principles." He's also done everything he can to make sure viewers see a photo of his opponent in Mecca, which was taken while Hamadeh was deployed with the Army. Hamadeh himself recently told Business Insider's Bryan Metzger he is "non-denominational" and doesn't affiliate with a specific religion. But Hamadeh isn't being left to fend for himself in this contest to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko. The candidate's brother, Waseem Hamadeh, contributed $1 million late last year to a group known as "ABE PAC." (The abbreviation purportedly stands for "Arizona's Bold Era.") As of Friday, ABE PAC had spent just over $400,000 to help its namesake, an effort that includes ads targeting Masters. In one such ad, the narrator accuses Masters of having "attacked our veterans, claiming they don't have 'skin in the game,'" a reference to a campaign video Masters released in April. "I've got a wonderful wife and four beautiful boys. That's called skin in the game," said Masters in the video. "I’m trying to protect these boys and your kids and grandkids, too, from illegal immigration. So what we don’t need is someone with no wife and kids, right? No skin in the game." Hamadeh is unmarried and has no children. The battle between Masters and Hamedah also includes leaked texts, attacks directed at family members, and claims about residency at a "nudist vegan commune." Unsurprisingly, this messy fight has dominated the race, but there are in fact some other candidates in the race—and if one of them were to win, it wouldn't be the first time an alternative to two bruised frontrunners has snuck through a morass like this. Lesko is backing state House Speaker Ben Toma, who found himself in the national spotlight in the spring when he waged an ultimately losing battle to prevent the legislature from repealing Arizona's 1864 abortion ban, a Civil War-era law the state Supreme Court had allowed to go into force. The only notable outside spending on Toma's behalf has been about $130,000 from Americans for Prosperity, which, along with the rest of the Koch network, became toxic in MAGA world after it backed Nikki Haley's unsuccessful campaign against Trump. Unlike other recipients of AFP aid, though, Toma has yet to feel Trump's wrath. Also in the running are a pair of politicians who have been at the center of separate scandals. Former Rep. Trent Franks is trying to regain his old seat seven years after he resigned in 2017 following a shocking sexual harassment scandal in which he pushed a pair of aides to serve as surrogate mothers. The other is state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was one of 11 Arizona Republicans indicted in April for serving on a slate of fake electors as part of Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election. Governors ● NH-Gov: Former state Senate President Chuck Morse belatedly submitted campaign finance reports on Wednesday that showed he'd hauled in just $380,000 from Dec. 5 through June 17 and ended the period with a $1 million war chest. Those figures put Morse well behind former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the other main candidate in the Sept. 10 GOP primary for governor. Ayotte took in $1.5 million during that same timeframe and had $3.3 million banked. Morse, who already faced skepticism about his fundraising capabilities, failed to submit a report by the state's June 19 deadline, claiming he was exempt and had until late August to file. But many observers questioned that claim, and s
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The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast
Leading Off
● AZ-08: A super PAC affiliated with venture capitalist Blake Masters' longtime allies in the crypto industry are spending almost $600,000 to boost him in the July 30 Republican primary for Arizona's 8th District, a constituency in the Phoenix's western suburbs that's home to what is now the ugliest House primary in the nation.
The opening spot from Defend American Jobs touts Masters as an ardent supporter of border security but does not mention his main rival and 2022 ticket-mate, Donald Trump-endorsed attorney Abe Hamadeh. (Masters was the GOP's failed nominee against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly while Hamadeh narrowly lost the race for attorney general to Kris Mayes.)
That's quite a contrast from what another Master ally has been up to, though. The American Principles Project dropped over $150,000 on digital ads in the spring labeling Hamadeh a "terrorist sympathizer."
Hamadeh, who told the Jerusalem Post last year that he grew up in a mixed Muslim-Druze family (the Druze are an ethnoreligious minority native to the Middle East), has also spent the last several months on the receiving end of Islamophobic commercials from Masters' own campaign.
Masters has repeatedly made use of part of an online comment his rival wrote as a teenager in 2009 that included the words "America Was Founded on Islamic Principles." He's also done everything he can to make sure viewers see a photo of his opponent in Mecca, which was taken while Hamadeh was deployed with the Army. Hamadeh himself recently told Business Insider's Bryan Metzger he is "non-denominational" and doesn't affiliate with a specific religion.
But Hamadeh isn't being left to fend for himself in this contest to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko.
The candidate's brother, Waseem Hamadeh, contributed $1 million late last year to a group known as "ABE PAC." (The abbreviation purportedly stands for "Arizona's Bold Era.") As of Friday, ABE PAC had spent just over $400,000 to help its namesake, an effort that includes ads targeting Masters. In one such ad, the narrator accuses Masters of having "attacked our veterans, claiming they don't have 'skin in the game,'" a reference to a campaign video Masters released in April.
"I've got a wonderful wife and four beautiful boys. That's called skin in the game," said Masters in the video. "I’m trying to protect these boys and your kids and grandkids, too, from illegal immigration. So what we don’t need is someone with no wife and kids, right? No skin in the game." Hamadeh is unmarried and has no children.
The battle between Masters and Hamedah also includes leaked texts, attacks directed at family members, and claims about residency at a "nudist vegan commune." Unsurprisingly, this messy fight has dominated the race, but there are in fact some other candidates in the race—and if one of them were to win, it wouldn't be the first time an alternative to two bruised frontrunners has snuck through a morass like this.
Lesko is backing state House Speaker Ben Toma, who found himself in the national spotlight in the spring when he waged an ultimately losing battle to prevent the legislature from repealing Arizona's 1864 abortion ban, a Civil War-era law the state Supreme Court had allowed to go into force.
The only notable outside spending on Toma's behalf has been about $130,000 from Americans for Prosperity, which, along with the rest of the Koch network, became toxic in MAGA world after it backed Nikki Haley's unsuccessful campaign against Trump. Unlike other recipients of AFP aid, though, Toma has yet to feel Trump's wrath.
Also in the running are a pair of politicians who have been at the center of separate scandals. Former Rep. Trent Franks is trying to regain his old seat seven years after he resigned in 2017 following a shocking sexual harassment scandal in which he pushed a pair of aides to serve as surrogate mothers. The other is state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was one of 11 Arizona Republicans indicted in April for serving on a slate of fake electors as part of Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election.
Governors
● NH-Gov: Former state Senate President Chuck Morse belatedly submitted campaign finance reports on Wednesday that showed he'd hauled in just $380,000 from Dec. 5 through June 17 and ended the period with a $1 million war chest.
Those figures put Morse well behind former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the other main candidate in the Sept. 10 GOP primary for governor. Ayotte took in $1.5 million during that same timeframe and had $3.3 million banked.
Morse, who already faced skepticism about his fundraising capabilities, failed to submit a report by the state's June 19 deadline, claiming he was exempt and had until late August to file. But many observers questioned that claim, and state Attorney General John Formella, a Republican, issued a statement agreeing that no such provision applied to Morse.
House
● FL-27: Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey has publicized an internal poll from MDW Communications that shows him trailing Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar by a 44-40 margin in a contest that hasn't attracted much outside attention so far. The pollster's memo does not mention Miami-Dade County School Board member Lucia Baez-Geller, who is Davey's opponent in the Aug. 20 primary.
Respondents favor Donald Trump 44-42 with third-party candidates included, a spread not far removed from his skinny 49.9-49.6 victory four years ago in this Miami-area district. According to analyst Matthew Isbell, though, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis took it 58-41 during his landslide reelection win in 2022, while Republican Sen. Marco Rubio won by a similar 57-42 margin.
DeSantis successfully pushed an aggressive gerrymander following the 2020 census, and so far, it's having its desired effect. None of the four largest outside groups involved in House races have reserved ad time to contest any of Florida's 28 congressional districts, though Davey is hoping this poll will convince well-funded Democrats to take a second look here.
Legislatures
● MN State House: Peter Callaghan of MinnPost has published a seat-by-seat look at the battlegrounds in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where Democrats are defending a small 70-64 majority this fall.
Callaghan identifies nine Democratic-held seats as races to watch. Republicans need to flip at least four of them to regain the speaker's chair after six years in the minority, but they can't focus solely on offense. As Callaghan explains, there are also five GOP-controlled constituencies in play.
Poll Pile
- NJ-Sen: co/efficient (R): Andy Kim (D): 39, Curtis Bashaw (R): 33, Bob Menendez (i-inc): 3; Kim: 41, Bashaw: 34 (41-40 Trump with third-party candidates)
Ad Roundup
- NV-Sen: Sam Brown (R)
- MO-Gov: Bill Eigel (R)
