Heritage Action’s Super PAC: Blake Masters’ Surge Due to His ‘Vision for Arizona,’ Mark Kelly’s Lack of Leadership

Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson told Breitbart News during a press conference on Thursday that Arizona Senate Republican Blake Masters’ surge in the polls is due to his “vision for Arizona,” while Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-AZ) stagnation is due to his lack of leadership.

Anderson led a press conference call as Masters has now struck a tie with Kelly in the contentious Arizona Senate election, according to the left-leaning Data for Progress. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has Kelly leading Masters by only 2.5 percent.

While the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has not invested many resources in helping flip the seat, the Sentinel Action Fund, Heritage’s super PAC, has invested considerable resources in turning the seat red and potentially taking back the Senate.

So far, the Sentinel Action Fund has dedicated $7.4 million to support Masters’ bid to oust Kelly. This includes:

• $4 million in ads targeting swing voters unhappy with the direction America is headed
• $1.5 million ad push attacking Kelly on his border policies
• $1 million ad slamming Kelly on his border
• $500,000 in a mail campaign
• $400,000 slamming Kelly for aiding President Joe Biden’s gas price

Asked by Breitbart News what she attributed to Masters’ surge in the Arizona Senate race, Anderson credited the Arizona populist with creating a vision for Arizona that has resonated with voters. In contrast, she said that Kelly has exhibited a lack of leadership.

She said that voters are now paying attention to the election more than ever now that it is weeks away, voters are talking to Heritage Action grassroots activists, voters see the Sentinel Action Fund ad, and are now voters very “plugged in.” Anderson also said that voters got to see the contrast between Masters and Kelly in a recent debate between the two major Senate candidates.

“Masters clearly walked away from that debate shining, very clear in his vision for Arizona. I think that the timing has really helped him pull ahead. Couple that with the fact that Senator Mark Kelly has not done anything to show any sort of leadership when it comes to the border or plans for inflation or energy or crimes. And all of that is just trickling down to voters and they’re looking around and they’re saying, ‘Wow, can we do better and they believe that that person should be better like Masters.’ And, I think if you take both the timing, coupled with the lack of leadership from Kelly, and then Blake’s own performance at the debate with our spending, putting all of these images–we actually had an ad immediately, but what–less than 48 hours after the debate up with from the state really bringing home the fact that Kelly is inconsistent and hypocritical when it comes to what he says about the border versus how he actually votes. And putting that right in front of voters’ minds has really helped to close this gap.”

Anderson also noted that before Sentinel Action Fund started their ad blitz against Kelly in September, the Arizona Democrat-led Masters 50 percent to 40. She said that they increased their ad campaigns after seeing that the polls closed the gap between Masters and Kelly.

OnMessage pollster Wes Anderson told Breitbart News that the Sentinel Action Fund came to aid Masters during a time when Masters won a “pretty bruising primary” and was down 10 to 12 points down against Kelly.

The pollster said that Masters is now tied with Hispanics in Arizona.

The OnMessage polling expert said the “messaging was clear,” and Sentinel Action Fund took the “fight back to Kelly” when no one else was fighting back against the Arizona Democrat. He noted during the call that Democrats are outspending Republicans in the race roughly two-to-one.

The pollster said, “There’s no secret sauce here. We had to take the fight back to Kelly and no one was going to do it and would not have done it if Sentinel Action Fund hadn’t done it.”