Arizona

Primary Fight Divides Arizona GOP Effort to Unseat Mark Kelly

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2022

Press Room

Arizona Republicans have splintered a number of methods because the get together tries to unseat Democratic Sen.

Mark Kelly.

With the Senate GOP major looming Aug. 2, polls have proven

Blake Masters

taking a lead after drawing the endorsement of former President

Donald Trump

and tens of millions of {dollars} in marketing campaign assist from his mentor and former boss, enterprise capitalist

Peter Thiel.

Whereas the sector is crowded, Mr. Masters’s prime opponents are seen as businessman

Jim Lamon

and state Lawyer Basic

Mark Brnovich.

Mr. Brnovich is operating on his report as an elected official whereas Messrs. Masters and Lamon have positioned themselves as provocative outsiders. All three males have tried to solid various levels of doubt on the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election—a subject that has ripped aside the state GOP since Mr. Trump misplaced the state to

Joe Biden

by about 10,000 votes. Mr. Trump has refused to acknowledge his loss in that election.

Whoever emerges from the sector will face Mr. Kelly, who doesn’t have a major problem within the Democratic race. Arizona, as soon as a dependable Republican stronghold, has change into a key battleground lately, and Mr. Kelly is one in all Republicans’s prime targets within the November midterm elections as they search to wrestle management of the 50-50 Senate. His marketing campaign declined to remark for this text.

Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, isn’t dealing with a major problem.

Photograph:

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos

Mr. Masters is seen because the slender front-runner for the GOP nod after Mr. Trump endorsed him final month. On the time, Mr. Trump mentioned Mr. Masters was “a terrific modern-day thinker” and cited his views on immigration and settlement with Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud as causes to again him.

Mr. Lamon, a businessman who says he’s the true “America First man,” is operating on the same platform to Mr. Masters. He has aligned himself carefully with the previous president, even with out Mr. Trump’s endorsement.

In an interview with The Wall Avenue Journal, Mr. Lamon, who was most not too long ago the founding father of a photo voltaic firm, mentioned his expertise as a enterprise proprietor and veteran make him finest geared up to tackle Mr. Kelly. Being a senator “is one massive job and I simply assume you want {qualifications} of how this nation works and operates,” he mentioned.

Mr. Lamon mentioned unlawful immigration was the highest difficulty for GOP voters and that the 2020 election was rating decrease for voters now that the Arizona legislature was passing payments that added new necessities for voting.

Nonetheless, Mr. Lamon has embraced false claims of a stolen election. He mentioned he supplied funding for the partisan audit of probably the most populous county’s election outcomes—the audit discovered Mr. Biden gained the election—and signed as much as symbolize the state as an elector for Mr. Trump regardless of President Biden’s win. Mr. Lamon mentioned that he was providing his title in case the election outcomes had been invalidated.

The subject of the 2020 presidential election outcomes has ripped aside the Arizona GOP since former President Donald Trump misplaced the state.

Photograph:

Michael Wyke/Related Press

Mr. Masters declined an interview request however via his marketing campaign supervisor mentioned: “President Trump endorsed me as a result of I’m the one America First candidate on this race. Sights set on beating Mark Kelly in November.”

Claims that he didn’t do sufficient to combat election fraud have tainted Mr. Brnovich with some Trump voters. Mr. Brnovich initially mentioned that there wasn’t any proof to vary Mr. Biden’s victory within the state however has since mentioned he has issues concerning the outcomes of the election. As lawyer normal he mentioned earlier this 12 months that he was persevering with to analyze the election. The workplace of the lawyer normal didn’t reply to a request for an replace on the investigation.

In an interview, Mr. Brnovich mentioned he was the candidate with probably the most expertise and the one one who has gained statewide. He dismissed the significance of Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Masters

“I’ll let you know precisely what I advised President Trump. ‘In the event you care about border safety, for those who care about power independence, low taxes, low regulation then I’m your man,’ ’’ he mentioned.

For some voters, the 2020 election is a key issue of their vote.

Millie Kerber, a 64-year-old retiree from Solar Metropolis, mentioned she is voting for Mr. Masters. She dominated out Mr. Brnovich as a result of he didn’t facet with Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election outcomes.

“He ought to have been doing his job,” she mentioned.

For different Republicans, Mr. Trump’s backing was a nonfactor or perhaps a unfavorable.

Ward Triplett, 78, a retiree from Glendale, mentioned he was deciding between Mr. Lamon and Main Basic Michael T. McGuire, the previous adjutant normal of the Arizona Nationwide Guard who can also be operating. Mr. Triplett mentioned although he “love[s] the heck out of President Trump” he has to interrupt with the previous president as a result of he doesn’t assume “Masters has the spine to be the senator.”

Mr. Trump’s “endorsement means completely zero to me, in truth I virtually see it as a unfavorable for that individual,” mentioned Greg Tate, 70, a retiree from Tempe who plans to assist Mr. Lamon. Mr. Tate mentioned he most popular Mr. Brnovich however worries concerning the lawyer normal’s potential to beat Mr. Kelly.

Whereas exterior teams are already spending to spice up their most popular candidate, there’s a large gulf between Democratic and GOP candidate fundraising, which might show a problem for the Republican nominee. In response to information from the Federal Election Fee as of July 21, Mr. Kelly had raised practically $56 million.

In the meantime, Mr. Masters had raised practically $5 million, which incorporates roughly $450,000 from the candidate. Mr. Lamon had raised greater than $15 million, which incorporates $14 million from the candidate. Mr. Brnovich had introduced in simply over $3 million.

Mr. Thiel—who additionally spent closely to assist J.D. Vance’s profitable bid for the GOP Senate nomination in Ohio—has put $15 million into a brilliant PAC aimed toward boosting Mr. Masters’s candidacy.

A ballot launched early this month from the Phoenix-based nonpartisan OH Predictive Insights has Mr. Masters gaining 16 proportion factors from April to July, after Mr. Trump’s endorsement in June, for a 25% share of possible GOP major voters. Mr. Lamon has moved up 2 proportion factors to 18% and Mr. Brnovich dropped 7 proportion factors to 14%. Two different candidates are polling within the single digits, and 35% of voters had been undecided.

Management of Congress is up for grabs and candidates are wanting to sway voters heading into November. WSJ’s Joshua Jamerson explains how Republicans and Democrats are framing the talk round key points such because the financial system, abortion, gun violence, immigration and pupil mortgage forgiveness. Photograph illustration: Laura Kammermann

Mike Noble, chief of analysis at OHPI, mentioned it was clear that Mr. Masters had the momentum however that wasn’t essentially an excellent factor for Republican prospects in a normal election.

“From incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly’s perspective, his worst concern can be to go in opposition to Mark Brnovich,” Mr. Noble mentioned. Mr. Brnovich is seen as a extra conventional Republican than Mr. Masters or Mr. Lamon and has much less fodder for marketing campaign adverts, Mr. Noble mentioned.

Democrats already are focusing on each Mr. Masters and Mr. Lamon, who they are saying have views, together with on abortion, which can be too far to the fitting in a state the place unbiased voters make up a 3rd of the citizens.

Mr. Masters additionally has drawn criticism for a number of controversial statements, together with when he mentioned in April that gun violence was attributable to “Black folks, frankly,” on the Jeff Oravits Present podcast.

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“Folks need authenticity. They don’t need their elected officers to make use of canned political speech,” mentioned Katie Miller, an adviser to Mr. Masters. As rationalization for his touch upon gun violence, Ms. Miller pointed to 2019 Federal Bureau of Investigation information exhibiting extra murders had been dedicated that 12 months by Black folks than white folks. The information appears solely at homicides involving a single offender and a single sufferer.

His writings as a university pupil, together with saying he opposed U.S. involvement in each World Wars and quoting a Nazi conflict prison, as reported by the New York Instances, even have drawn unfavorable consideration.

Ms. Miller pointed The Wall Avenue Journal to Mr. Masters’s previous protection of his feedback, by which he mentioned that quoting somebody “doesn’t imply I endorse any of his views.” He mentioned that his antiwar statements got here from opposition to the Iraq conflict however that “I went too far and said that no latest American wars have been simply.”

—Alicia A. Caldwell, Alexa Corse and Tarini Parti contributed to this text.

Write to Eliza Collins at eliza.collins+1@wsj.com.

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Arizona

Tommy Lloyd Giving Arizona Wildcats Mandatory Break During Holidays

Published

59 minutes ago

December 23, 2024

Press Room

Tommy Lloyd Giving Arizona Wildcats Mandatory Break During Holidays

This season has not gone as many expected for Arizona.

After coming into the year ranked No. 10 in preseason polls, the Wildcats quickly dropped out of the picture following losses to Wisconsin and Duke which were a precursor of what was to come.

Arizona went into the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament as one of the favorites, and after beating Davidson in their first-round matchup by over 30 points, it looked like they had gotten things back on track and were ready to play like the team many expected them to be.

But, alarm bells went off when they lost back-to-back games against Oklahoma and West Virginia that pushed them under .500 for the first time in the Tommy Lloyd era, and also the first time in 14 years.

Since then, Arizona has taken care of business against the lesser opponents on their schedule but failed to win against UCLA despite being in control for the majority of that contest.

The Wildcats closed out their non-conference schedule in style following that loss, bludgeoning Samford and Central Michigan to head into the holiday break feeling more positive about what they can accomplish going forward, while also having a lot to think about.

Lloyd and the players know this wasn’t the early-season stretch they wanted, but he gave his team a clear directive during this break; take time away from basketball.

“Rest, relax, love your family, hang out. That’s the homework,” the head coach said per Bruce Pascoe of The Arizona Daily Star.

That’s probably a good approach.

There’s nothing anyone can do about what has already taken place, but they can certainly get burned out if they’re not careful and lose confidence if they dwell on mistakes.

“I mean, this nonconference was rough. I think we all need a little break and a reset,” KJ Lewis said.

Lloyd is giving his players that time to reset, sending everyone home for the holidays or somewhere with either friends or family.

This time away should hopefully allow Arizona to put the non-conference schedule in the past and get ready for the daunting challenge that will come by playing Big 12 opponents until Selection Sunday.

Lloyd is also hoping this let’s his team get motivated for their return to the court.

“Get hungry. Get hungry because we know when we come back — we’re excited to be starting this Big 12 thing we’ve been talking about for about 20 months. We’re fired up,” he added.

Arizona welcomes TCU into the McKale Center on Dec. 30.

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Arizona

Instant Grades: Cardinals Sabotage Playoff Hopes

Published

9 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Instant Grades: Cardinals Sabotage Playoff Hopes

The story since the bye week has largely been the same game after game. The Arizona Cardinals had two chances to beat the Seattle Seahawks and fight for first place in the division. They failed both times.

Today, they needed to beat the Carolina Panthers to stay in the hunt with the LA Rams beating the New York Jets. They failed.

The underlying issues of why this is happening is another issue for another article, but the fact is that the Arizona Cardinals are out of the playoff hunt and already looking forward to 2025.

In the meantime, what happened today and how did the various position groups perform? Let’s take a look.

Quarterback – C-

No, Kyler Murray didn’t put the entire team on his back today to force a win, but it also can not be argued that he had much help from the team around him other than James Conner. That is not an excuse though for a player in his sixth NFL season with a massive contract that comes with high performance expectations.

Still, Murray is supposed to be a special player and he did not look special today. There was a flash of the special quarterback in the fourth quarter with a 20-yard rushing touchdown, but it was too little too late.

Most concerning, late in the fourth quarter Murray made a boneheaded mistake throwing to a spot of the field without an obvious receiver and the Panthers picked off the floater and held the ball till the very end, effectively ending Arizona’s season. There has not been a game since the bye in which Murray has not made a similarly mind-bogglingly bad play.

Offensive Line – B-

There were certainly concerns about the offensive line going into this game with left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. out with a knee injury and center Hjalte Froholdt suffering from an illness.

Thankfully, Froholdt was able to play through illness and Kelvin Beachum plugged in at left tackle and played another decent game.

Overall, the offensive line played a fine game and were one of the few position groups that showed up and simply did their job althought their performance was noticeably impacted after Jonah Williams went to locker room with a knee issue in the third quarter.

Tight End – C

Hard to really grade this position since, in a major switch from previous weeks, Trey McBride did not feature heavily for the Cardinals offense.

McBride caught three of the four balls that came his way, but only for a gain of 20 yards and once again was kept out of the end zone to extend his scoreless streak.

Running Back – A

James Conner is every coaches dream power back. After Petzing belatedly figured out that the Panthers possess the worst run defense in the league, Conner truly took over the offense.

Sadly, Conner hurt his knee in the third quarter and did not reenter the game leaving Michael Carter and DeeJay Dallas as the remaining active running backs.

Without Conner’s special gifts the Cardinals offense was not the same and the Panthers took advantage of that fact.

Wide Receiver – C-

The reader would be excused for not believing the Cardinals have any wide receivers on the roster considering the lack of impact they have had in several games this season.

Petzing has faced severe backlash for not finding ways to get the ball to the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft, Marvin Harrison, Jr, and for good reason. Still, trying to force the ball to Harrison, Jr. has not worked out and the connection between Murray and his rookie receiver is still not there.

Michael Wilson has shown up in big moments several times this year and did have a major 38-yard grab in the third quarter that gave the Cardinals some life.

Defensive Line – C-

The Cardinals defensive line failed in the two areas that were criticial to helping their team succeed this afternoon; contain Chuba Hubbard and put pressure on Bryce Young.

Naquan Jones was the only defensive lineman to actually get to Young but otherwise the young, second-year quarterback had time to do what he wanted and even saw multiple gaps open up through the defensive line and broke off some major runs that put the Cardinals in a hole early.

Hubbard really started to have his way in the second half and on several drives basically controlled the entire Panthers offense, often getting through the first line of defense untouched.

Linebacker – C+

The most that can really be said for this group is that Baron Browning flashes occasionally and did manage to get Young on the ground today for a sack.

Otherwise, the linebackers did not have a significant impact on this game after being one of the most consistent position groups all season. That being said, Kyzir White’s sack in overtime gave the Cardinals much needed hope and forced a punt, but again, too little too late.

The problems containing Panthers running back Hubbard might have started with the defensive line but the linebackers are supposed to stem the bleeding and they failed consistently in that effort in the second half.

Secondary – B-

Young did not have an inspired passing game today at all, and that is largely thanks to a sticky Cardinals secondary that did not allow him many easy downfield passes.

Rookie Max Melton had some rookie moments, but he continues to show some flashes that indicate a bright future in the league. It was second-year cornerback Garrett Williams that had some coverage issues.

Budda Baker did Budda Baker things but a big coverage whiff in the fourth quarter put the Cardinals in tough position. Fellow safety Jalen Thompson teamed up with Baker to clean up a lot of mistakes.

Sean Murphy-Bunting has struggled in big moments all season and today was not an exception. Needing a big stop early in the fourth quarter he allowed a corner of the end zone touchdown that put the Panthers up by ten and effectively ended the Cardinals season. A bad individual performance but not necessarily indicative of the entire position group’s performance.

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Arizona

Arizona Cardinals vs Carolina Panthers live score updates for NFL Week 16 game today

Published

17 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Arizona Cardinals vs Carolina Panthers live score updates for NFL Week 16 game today

The Arizona Cardinals continue their 2024 NFL regular season schedule with an NFL Week 16 game against the Carolina Panthers today.

The Cardinals are coming off a 30-17 win against the New England Patriots at home in NFL Week 15.

The Panthers lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-14.

The Cardinals are 7-7 on the season. The Panthers are 3-11.

Follow our live updates of the game, which is being played at Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium, for the latest score, news, notes and analysis of the Week 16 NFL game Sunday.

Watch Cardinals at Panthers with FUBO (free trial)

Cardinals vs Panthers schedule: What time is NFL Week 16 game?

The game is on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 11 a.m. MST, 1 p.m. ET.

Cardinals vs Panthers TV: What channel is NFL Week 16 game on?

The game can be seen on FOX.

Cardinals vs Panthers streaming: How do I watch NFL Week 16 game on livestream?

Streaming options for the Cardinals at Panthers game include FUBO and other streaming services that carry FOX.

Cardinals vs Panthers announcers: Who is calling the NFL Week 16 game?

Chris Myers (play-by-play) and Mark Schlereth (analyst) are scheduled to be the announcers for the Cardinals-Panthers Week 16 NFL game.

Cardinals vs Panthers game odds: Who is favored in NFL Week 16?

The Cardinals are a four-point favorite over the Panthers in NFL Week 16 odds for the game, courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook.

Arizona is -225 on the moneyline, while Carolina is +180.

The over/under (point total) is set at 47 points.

Pregame reading for Cardinals at Panthers game today

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