Blake Masters: Mark Kelly Focuses on Abortion to Hide 'Track Record'

PHOENIX, AZ – Arizona’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Blake Masters, told Breitbart News during an exclusive interview that his opponent, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Democrats focus on abortion because of their awful track record on other issues.

Breitbart News caught up with Masters last week after an event at Bobby-Q BBQ Restaurant and Steakhouse, south of North Mountain Village in Phoenix, where he blasted Kelly and Democrats for harping on the abortion narrative “to the exclusion” of other issues plaguing Arizonans and Americans.

“Abortion is an important issue, but the Democrats are focusing on it to the exclusion of everything else because their track record is so bad,” said Masters, who former President Donald Trump endorses. “They don’t want to talk about the wide open southern border, and Mark Kelly on the debate stage he had to admit, ‘Oh, the border’s a mess, but I’m trying to fix it.’ He can’t even say it’s going well. They don’t want to talk about double-digit inflation; they don’t want to talk about rising crime; they don’t want to talk about anything except to try to gin up outrage over abortion, but even there, I think it just backfires.”

“Mark Kelly is the abortion radical; I exposed him and his left-wing voting record. I’m the one who can actually represent most Arizonans on this issue,” Masters told Breitbart news. “Leave it to the states, Arizona’s decided 15 weeks, and I want a federal backstop, ideally at 15 weeks, and that’s something most people can get behind. The Democrats, I mean, Mark Kelly’s just had to lie; he spent more money lying about my views and policy on abortion than my whole campaign budget. The only way this guy can even possibly keep this race close is by lying about me and by lying about his track record.”

“So he’s got a lot of money to spread those lies; you know, we got to work hard to overcome that. But we’ve got the benefit of only having to tell the truth,” Masters explained. “I just get out and tell the truth – ‘Here’s what I think, and here’s what I’d do, and here’s what Mark Kelly has done. He can say something different now, but his track record speaks for itself.’ If we just get out and spread that truth, and Arizonans hear that, then we’ll crush him.”

While Democrats look to bring abortion to the forefront of the political conversation with election day just weeks out, Arizonans are more concerned with immigration, inflation, the economy, and crime, a recent CBS/YouGov poll found. Among the issues that received the highest rate of “very important” responses, abortion ranked seventh. Masters also called out Kelly for his extreme voting record on abortion and for failing to disclose when he thinks abortion restrictions should come into play during pregnancy.

“He campaigns as a moderate, but then he votes as a radical,” said Masters, who is one of the GOP’s “brightest stars,” according to former Vice President Mike Pence. “And I think the moderator in our debate asked, maybe twice… like, ‘Hey, Mark, would you draw the line anywhere,’ and he kept reciting some, like, consultant-prepared talking point about, ‘Oh, Roe v. Wade.’

“No, the real answer is that the bill that Mark Kelly sponsored would have allowed no restrictions on abortion whatsoever. This man really does vote for abortion on demand for any reason, up until the moment at birth, and then he wants you, the taxpayer, to fund it,” he continued. “And it’s just so crazy. It’s so extreme, and it’s so out of step with what Arizonans want.”

Masters added that Kelly’s radicalism is not confined to the issue of abortion but is apparent on other issues as well, though he presents himself as a moderate politician.

“And that’s his whole shtick is he doesn’t seem like [a radical]. I don’t know if he actually believes this stuff; at least Bernie Sanders believes what he’s saying,” Masters explained. “Mark Kelly is… there to vote for the radical left-wing agenda, but then he pretends to be, ‘Oh, I’m just this normal centrist.’ And it’s like, no, he’s not. So he’s, he’s a liar. And he’s voted in favor of this agenda that is hurting people. And I just find that especially – well, it’s dishonest. It’s dishonest, and then it’s causing harm. It’s like the worst possible place to be; that’s why it was a real pleasure to stick it to him on the debate stage.”