Masters targets Democrats over ‘diversity obsession’

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters is hitting Democrats on affirmative action and their “diversity obsession” in a video released Monday on Twitter.

In the roughly 90-second, selfie-style video, Masters declares: “News for Joe Biden, we are done with this affirmative action regime.”

“You know, if you want to see the affirmative action regime on display, just look at Biden’s White House. Biden promised that he would choose a woman for his VP. Then of course, he chose Kamala Harris, so incompetent she can’t even get a sentence out,” he says in the video. “But I’ve never spoken to anyone who can say with a straight face that Kamala was somehow the most qualified candidate for that job.”

He says that Democrats are “addicted” to identity politics, arguing that they do not care about whether a candidate was qualified or good at their job, only about their appearance. 

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement that the White House didn’t have a comment regarding Masters’ video but noted that “the President is deeply proud to have chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate and of the historic accomplishments they have delivered together for the American middle class.”

“He’s also proud of the work the two of them are doing to protect the basic rights of women in the wake of radical efforts by congressional Republicans to force a national abortion ban on the country, and of the fact that this administration will always have the courage to show where we stand on that fundamental issue.”

Affirmative action has been used in a range of institutions, including in higher education spaces, job settings and elsewhere, in an effort to provide equal opportunities for people from marginalized communities. Affirmative action policies have been used as a way to address historical discrimination in those fields, though it remains a hotly debated issue. 

Masters is going head to head with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a race the nonpartisan Cook Political Report considers a “toss up.” Masters’s video on affirmative action isn’t the first time he’s waded into the discussion on race. 

Masters, who is white, quote-tweeted a statement he made the day before in which he sarcastically alluded to the idea that the economy was not doing well because of diversity efforts at the Federal Reserve. 

“Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well,” Masters tweeted, referencing a tweet from The Associated Press that noted how the Federal Reserve’s leadership had become the most diverse in years.

The statement and video are seen as a larger effort by Republicans to focus on cultural war issues such a “critical race theory” and transgender women and girls competing in sports.