How a Feud Between Arizona’s Trumpiest Republicans Has Taken Over a GOP Primary

Ugly campaign ads and accusations of a “mental breakdown” are exposing deep divides in the MAGA world.

Blake Masters

Masters’ refusal to participate in baseless election fraud allegations did not go unnoticed in Trumpworld. Rick Scuteri/AP

The fight to win a contentious and crowded Arizona Republican primary is bringing out bitter divisions among some of Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters.

Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh are two of the candidates running in the 8th District. Both men consider themselves staunch Trump allies. Both men lost their races in 2022 (Masters for the Senate and Hamadeh for attorney general). There’s also Kari Lake, who likewise considers herself close to Trump, lost her gubernatorial bid in 2022 and is now running for Senate.

Trump endorsed all three in 2022 but is only supporting Lake and Hamadeh this time around, and the two are supporting each other. As the race heats up, the bad blood between the three is spilling further out into the open.