Trump-endorsed Masters, Finchem win Arizona GOP nods for key races

State lawmaker and 2020 election denier Mark Finchem has won the Republican nomination for secretary of state of Arizona, pushing him closer to being the state’s chief election officer during the 2024 presidential vote, while venture capitalist Blake Masters will represent the party in the state's key Senate race in the fall.

Both GOP primaries were called early Wednesday as more votes were counted in Arizona. The Senate race, once a hotly-contested GOP primary, saw Masters soar to the top of the polls after receiving former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. It was one of two big nods powering Masters’ campaign, along with $15 million in super PAC support from tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Masters’ former employer.

The general election is set to be one of the most pivotal Senate campaigns in the country. Closely divided Arizona is key to the GOP’s hopes of flipping the 50-50 Senate. But Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly is running a strong campaign, having banked tens of millions of dollars while Masters was battling in his primary. Kelly also still enjoys nonpartisan cred as a former astronaut — though Republicans have tried to chip away at that image with ads tying him to President Joe Biden his party in Washington. National GOP groups have already aired well over $35 million in ads going after Kelly this election cycle, according to AdImpact.

Masters, meanwhile, has staked out some far-right ground during his primary campaign, including parroting the false claim that Trump won the 2020 election. He has also touted the “Great Replacement” theory, a racist conspiracy theory alleging a plot to dilute the white population. And in an interview on the Jeff Oravits show this year, Masters said gun violence was caused by “Black people, frankly.”

In the secretary of state race, Finchem also got Trump's backing — and is at the vanguard of a movement of Trump supporters seeking to take over election offices around the country and enact major changes after spreading conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 elections. Finchem has said that he wants to ban early voting and drastically restrict mail-in ballots in a state that has been a pioneer in wide, bipartisan adoption of the previously uncontroversial voting practice. He is also suing to suspend all electronic vote-counting machines in Arizona.

Finchem will face the winner of the Democratic primary between Adrian Fontes, the former Maricopa County recorder, and Reginald Bolding, a state legislator, in November. Both parties have made the purple state a top target this fall, as sitting Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, ran for governor. She won her party’s primary for that office Tuesday, while on the GOP side, Kari Lake leads Karrin Taylor Robson in a race that's too close to call so far.

Finchem is the latest member of the “America First Secretary of State Coalition” to secure the Republican nomination in a key battleground, putting candidates who have falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen in position, if they win their general elections, to administer the 2024 presidential vote in their states.

The coalition’s founder, Jim Marchant, is the Republican nominee in Nevada, while Kristina Karamo is the party’s pick in Michigan. And in Pennsylvania, where the governor picks the state’s chief election official, coalition member Doug Mastriano is the GOP candidate.

Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.