For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org

DEBATE DEBRIEF: What They’re Reading About Last Week’s Full-Field #AZSen Debate 
PHOENIX — Late last week, all five GOP Senate primary candidates shared the stage for the first time, sparring over Blake Masters’ Thiel dependence, Jim Lamon’s China ties, and Mark Brnovich’s weakness on “election integrity.” 
Ever since, Arizonans have been reading all about how this “decidedly weak” field spent the “heated debate” touting their out-of-step policy agendas and outlining exactly why Brnovich, Lamon, and Masters have no business representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate.

Missed the spectacle? See below for the top four takeaways: 

1. The combative debate brought the ongoing attack ad war center stage:
   • CBS News: Arizona GOP Senate candidates hold debate as negative ads overtake airwaves
     The Republican candidates for Senate in Arizona faced off in a heated debate for the first time on Thursday night as the closely watched race is becoming one of the most expensive primary battles in the country.

     …

     The top-polling candidates… didn’t hold back on attacking each other.
   • Arizona Republic: Arizona Republican Senate debate features digs on Blake Masters, Mark Brnovich
     Arizona’s Republican Senate candidates took turns hitting each other’s backgrounds Thursday, but the sharpest blows landed on Blake Masters over his support from billionaire Peter Thiel and his ties to Facebook.
2. Blake Masters joins Jim Lamon in wanting to privatize Social Security:
   • Business Insider: A Trump-backed Arizona Senate candidate suggests he wants to privatize Social Security
     A Trump-backed Republican Senate candidate in Arizona suggested privatizing Social Security on Thursday, arguing the safety-net program will be long gone by the time he reaches retirement age.

      

   • NBC News: Trump took entitlements off the table. One of his 2022 candidates just put them back on
     “Maybe we should privatize Social Security. Private retirement accounts. Get the government out of it.”

3. Jim Lamon’s rivals keep attacking him for his past business dealings with the Chinese Communist Party:
   • Phoenix New Times: Four Eye-Popping Moments from Arizona GOP Senate Debate
     Jim Lamon rants about outsourcing manufacturing to China … despite his plentiful business dealings in China.

     …

     But — as his opponents have pointed out — Lamon’s solar business had a history of lucrative dealings with China. As Phoenix New Times reported this month, Lamon imported hundreds of shipments from state-owned Chinese companies.

   • CBS News: Arizona GOP Senate candidates hold debate as negative ads overtake airwaves
     Masters and Lamon… are now increasingly using [their] ads to attack each other. A new ad from the Save Arizona PAC claims Lamon is “associated with forced slave labor” in China and that his company imported supplies from Chinese markets.
4. Mark Brnovich was “visibly pained” by attacks from both his rivals and the crowd for not going far enough to spread Trump’s lies around the 2020 election:
   • Arizona Republic: Arizona Republican Senate debate features digs on Blake Masters, Mark Brnovich
     Some in the crowd at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix heckled Brnovich as he defended his office’s work to protect against election fraud, the issue that led former President Donald Trump to recently endorse Masters and rip Brnovich. Brnovich responded angrily.

     “Please respect me and let me finish my answer,” he said. “If the truth hurts, then just shut the hell up, all right?” he said, drawing cheers from those supporting him.

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