Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona Mark Kelly debates his Republican opponent Blake Masters Oct. 6, in a live debate coordinated by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission.
By Caitlin Sievers || Arizona Mirror
In a contentious debate, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly painted his Republican opponent as someone who “thinks he knows better than you,” while Blake Masters repeatedly sought to cast Kelly as tied at the hip with President Joe Biden, who is broadly unpopular among voters, according to political polling.
Kelly, a former Navy pilot and astronaut who won a special election in 2020 and is now seeking a full six-year Senate term, and venture capitalist Masters got the majority of the talking time Thursday evening in a debate televised live on Arizona PBS, while Libertarian lawyer Marc Victor was sometimes pushed to the sidelines.
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The candidates discussed and sometimes traded barbs over inflation, immigration, abortion rights, the 2020 election and Arizona’s water crisis.
Inflation
Masters blamed inflation on Kelly and Biden, specifically on their “war against oil and gas.” When oil and gas prices increased, so did the cost of everything else that is made or shipped using those energy sources, Masters said.
“They caused this crushing inflation, and it’s ruining people’s lives,” Masters said.
He also attributed inflation to Democrats approving $6 trillion in domestic spending since Biden became president.
“Joe Biden is spending like a drunken sailor, and at every opportunity, Mark Kelly says ‘yes’” Masters said.
Kelly said he’d been working to help cut costs for consumers, including standing up to big pharmaceutical companies to help reign in costs for senior citizens. He also refuted Masters’ claim that he sided with Biden’s actions on oil and gas companies.
“When Joe Biden refused to increase oil and gas production, I told him he was wrong,” Kelly said.
Throughout the debate Kelly repeated that Masters favors privatizing Social Security, a policy that Kelly said would hurt seniors more than any other policy. After winning the GOP nomination, Masters walked back that policy position, and now says he opposes privatization.
Victor said that inflation was the fault of foolish economic policies of both Republicans and Democrats over the past several administrations.
