Poll: Republican Blake Masters on Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly’s Heels in Arizona

Arizona’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Blake Masters, is right on Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-AZ) heels in the general election race, according to a poll.

The Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll, commissioned by the Save Arizona PAC, was conducted between July 13-14 – before Masters clinched the nomination – and released Wednesday. “If the election for U.S. Senator were held today and the candidates were… Blake Masters, the Republican, and Mark Kelly, the Democrat, for whom would you vote?” participants were asked.

Masters drew 44 percent of the response among likely general election voters, placing him within striking distance of Kelly, whom 49 percent said they would support. Another 7 percent are undecided. Among voters who have heard of both candidates, the poll showed a dead split with each candidate at 47 percent.

Fabrizio, Lee & Associates also broke down how popular each candidate was among three different voter populations who rated border security, inflation, and abortion as the top issues.

Of those who said border security is paramount, 88 percent said they support Masters, while 60 percent of those who view inflation as the top issue support the GOP nominee, as opposed to just 27 percent who prefer Kelly on the issue. Another 13 percent of the demographic was undecided. Conversely, those who said abortion was the top issue supported Kelly over Masters at 90 percent to 8 percent, with 2 percent undecided.

Masters, who is backed by former President Donald J. Trump and enjoyed a strong primary win over his opponents on Tuesday night, labeled Kelly, a former astronaut, the “worst senator in America” while speaking at a Save America Rally on July 22. He also touched on the very issues this poll focuses on:

Mark Kelly is completely disconnected from what life is like here on planet Earth. He’s just out to lunch. Here on Earth, in America, out-of-control inflation means that your gas, and your groceries, and your rent just keep going up and up and up. Here on Earth, in America, out-of-control illegal immigration just means that violent crime gets worse and worse.

Masters went on to suggest the audience “send him back to space” in the midterm elections on November 8:

He has voted for all the crazy spending that has caused this massive inflation. Mark Kelly voted to legalize abortion nationwide up until the moment of birth. Think about how radical that is. And this after promising Arizonans that he was going to be an independent, that he was going to be a moderate. And you know what? He lied.

The poll also showed President Joe Biden’s approval rating was deep underwater among poll participants, with just 38 percent saying they are satisfied with his performance. Conversely, 61 percent stated they “disapprove” of Biden, with a majority of all respondents (52 percent) saying they “strongly disapprove.”

The poll sampled 800 likely general election voters between July 13-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.