Masters is promoting an April 30 event in Chandler.
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez| Arizona Republic
Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters is challenging Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to debate him on election integrity issues as part of an event where former President Donald Trump looms large — and could take part.
Masters is promoting an April 30 event in Chandler moderated by Christina Bobb, who became prominent last year on the conspiratorial right-wing One America News Network during its Republican-friendly coverage of the Arizona Senate’s Maricopa County ballot review and who reportedly now works for Trump’s Save America PAC.
Masters said a “Very Special Guest,” could call in, referring to Trump, who last week made it plain he would not endorse Brnovich in the Senate race for failing to act on what Trump falsely claims as widespread election fraud in Arizona.
There is no indication Brnovich intends to participate in the event, which reflects the presumed potency to Republican voters of Trump and his continued baseless claims of a stolen election.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately say whether the former president intended to dial in to the gathering.
Masters, 35, of Tucson, is locked in a crowded race for the Republican Senate nomination ahead of the Aug. 2 primary election.
Trump’s insistence on election fraud still finds sizable support among many in the GOP base.
It is an issue that is energizing voters from all over the state who are judging the Senate candidates on how they handle what Democrats and others simply call the “Big Lie.”
From Arizona to Pennsylvania, Trump is supporting candidates across the nation who have unequivocally echoed his misrepresentation of the 2020 election results.
All the GOP Senate candidates in Arizona’s midterm race have either asserted the election saw widespread fraud or that there were improprieties that cost Trump votes.
Election experts and administrators have rejected such claims, but the idea has burrowed deep into the psyche of many GOP voters.
