Venture capitalist and former U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters has announced he intends to seek the Republican nomination for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. The deeply conservative Arizona seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is currently held by Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican, who has announced she will retire at the end of her term.
I'm running for Congress, to fight for Arizona's 8th.
Biden has failed. We need Trump back. We need to stop inflation, Build the Wall, avoid WW3, and secure Arizona's water future. We need to fight for our families.
DONATE NOW to send me to the House! https://t.co/SHG8CRcJHu pic.twitter.com/atte7wNHeu
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) October 26, 2023
Prior to entering politics, Masters was a close colleague of billionaire tech-entrepreneur Peter Thiel. Masters served as the president of the Thiel Foundation and as the chief operating office for Thiel’s investment operation, Thiel Capital.
Masters won a divisive Republican primary for one of Arizona’s U.S. Senate seats in 2022, despite his opponents engaging in negative campaigns against him. Facing an uphill battle against popular incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Kelly, Masters received significant backing from both Thiel and former President Donald Trump. Masters ultimately lost to Sen. Kelly in the November general election. Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, is the husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords – who was nearly killed by a drug-addled, anti-Christian, anti-government conspiracy theorist named Jared Loughner at a campaign event in January of 2011. Six people attending the Giffords event were killed by Loughner.
Abe Hamadeh, the 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona Attorney General and a former prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, is also expected to enter the Republican primary to replace Congresswoman Lesko. Early polling on the race indicates it is currently a toss up. A National Public Affairs poll hows Hamadeh up over Masters 31 to 24 percent. Ben Toma, who serves as the Speaker of Arizona’s State House of Representatives, comes in third place with just 11 percent. However, a Masters campaign internal poll by Data Orbital shows Masters ahead of Hamadeh by 15 points, with 33 percent to Hamadeh’s 18. Toma again comes in third with just 7 percent support.