Jim Lamon speaks with attendees at the Rally to Protect Our Elections hosted by Turning Point Action at Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix in 2021. /Gage Skidmore
ELIAS WEISS | Phoenix New Times
U.S. Senate hopeful Jim Lamon, who spends a lot of money peddling anti-China rhetoric on the airwaves, is in bed with Chinese Communists, a new political ad claims.
Lamon, who’s using his own fortune to fund his campaign, is accused by political opponents of bashing Beijing and its cronies with money he earned from lucrative dealings with the Chinese Communist Party.
The retired energy executive and political newcomer is in a crowded field trying to secure the Republican nomination in the race to unseat incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly.
Spending from his own coffers, Lamon has squandered the support of GOP voters with his own political ads described by critics as out of touch and offensive.
Conservative activist Ned Ryun and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a Republican who co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, have lambasted Lamon as a hypocrite and a turncoat “RINO,” a Republican In Name Only.
The Thiel-funded Saving Arizona PAC is behind a recent television ad that dubs the Fountain Hills Republican as “Liberal Pro-China Jim Lamon.” Thiel put up $10 million for the PAC, which was created to bolster support for Blake Masters, Lamon’s opponent in the August primary.
Lamon says the pro-China accusations are all political theater. But his professional dealings with China are copious and persistent, U.S. customs records reveal.
“This ad paid for by Blake Masters’ big tech super PAC is ridiculous and comically hypocritical given Masters’ extremely recent and proactive business dealings with China,” Lamon said in a Wednesday email to Phoenix New Times. “Blake has invested in Chinese stem cell research and numerous other Chinese companies and startups, including a company that further outsources our supply chain to China and whose executives were caught illegally donating to his campaign.”
Dubious Dealings With the Chinese
Lamon is the former CEO and founder of DEPCOM Power, a Scottsdale-based utility-scale solar company. Before that, he was the senior vice president of engineering, procurement, and construction at Tempe-based First Solar, Inc.
