Trump-backed Masters to face Mark Kelly in Arizona Senate race

Venture capitalist Blake Masters is projected to win Arizona’s Republican Senate nomination on Tuesday, setting up a match-up with Sen. Mark Kelly (D).

Polls in the lead up to Election Day showed Masters, who was backed by former President Trump, leading a crowded primary field that included businessman Jim Lamon and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Masters’s victory is seen as a win for Trump. Both Masters and Lamon have said they would have objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election had they been serving in the Senate at the time.

Masters also has the support of GOP mega-donor Peter Thiel.

Arizona’s Senate race will be one of the more closely watched of the 2022 midterms. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a “toss-up.”