US Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, with his wife, former US Representative Gabby Giffords. Photo Credit: REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images.
In one of the most important battleground races on the midterm election map this year, Blake Masters loses to Mark Kelly. Sen. Mark Kelly will hold onto his seat after beating Trump backed challenger Blake Masters.
Kelly’s win over venture capitalist Blake Masters brings comes as a blow for Republicans in their quest to regain Senate control.
Mark Kelly being a former Republican and a moderate Democrat helped him appeal to independent voters. After Arizona win, Democrats are just one seat away from retaining their 50-seat majority in the Senate.
A significant fundraising campaign kept Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of the late Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), optimistic the entire time. According to Kelly’s Federal Election Commission filing on October 19, which was the last financial audit of his campaign, he raised more over $80 million for the endeavour. Between the primary and Tuesday’s election, he was able to control the airwaves because to this money.
After receiving $15 million in outside fund raising from Peter Theil to help him win through the primary, a disagreement erupted between Theil and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about who would give Masters financial assistance in the closing weeks of the campaign (R-Ky.). The Senate Leadership Fund decided not to move further when Theil proposed that everyone donate $5 million to support the GOP nominee, putting a stop to negotiations. Late in September, the Senate Leadership Fund canceled almost $10 million in commercials, signaling a problem. This gave other GOP organizations time to fill the void. One of them was the Club for Growth, which increased its expenditure by $5.5 million on October 28 in favour of Masters.
It is noteworthy that Masters not only lost to Kelly but also trailed Republican Kari Lake in the polls during the last several months, who emerged as the state’s leading GOP ticket backer. Days after participating in a debate with Kelly and, in Trump’s judgement, failing to adequately address electoral fraud, Lake brought up the subject in a phone call with Masters.
Masters made a second appearance on Fox News a week after the debate to reaffirm his conviction that Trump would now be in power if there had been a free and fair election. If everyone followed the law, President Trump would already be in office, according to Masters on FOX News.
While Masters fought with his loyalty to Trump, Kelly made an attempt to distance himself from Mr. Biden. After his election, he allegedly learned that Democrats “don’t comprehend” the issue of border immigration and that Republicans merely want to polarise the conversation.Kelly maintained a significant financial and television advertising expenditure advantage throughout the whole campaign.
