What Jim Lamon Hath Wrought

Let the Lamon for US Senate Campaign be a lesson to all future GOP primary candidates on what not to do.

Jim Lamon By Gage Skidmore

On the historical epitaph of the Jim Lamon for U.S. Senate campaign, the end date will be written “July 22, 2022”. That’s the date—today—when President Trump’s plane touches down in Arizona to deliver the knockout blow to the man, still without his own Wikipedia page, who would be senator. Yes, the former solar executive, who pledged to spend $50 million of his own money in the race, evidently couldn’t find $250 to hire a freelancer on Fiverr.com to make a page for himself. Or maybe that was intentional?

Perhaps the more important date, though, will be May 13, 2022, when America’s most charming solar panel salesman decided to go after fellow GOP contender Blake Masters as a “fake”. That he broke a campaign promise not to attack his fellow Republicans is, sadly, par for the course in American politics nowadays. But it was the angle of the attacks that undid any progress Lamon had made with Arizona voters.

The Lamon campaign’s strategy could be summed up with the phrase “big lie”, defined in the dictionary as “a deliberate gross distortion of the truth used especially as a propaganda tactic.” That’s because Blake Masters—self-styled protégé of Silicon Valley’s first and most prominent executive to endorse Donald Trump in 2016—is anything but a “fake” conservative. Peter Thiel, who then went on to become Trump’s handpicked keynote speaker at the 2016 GOP convention, is no fake conservative, either. In the only other presidential race for which Thiel has made a public endorsement, he chose former Congressman Ron Paul, a man who helped transform the Republican Party into the non-interventionist and pro-middle class movement that it has at long last become.

The Masters Campaign

But it didn’t work. You see, the Masters campaign from the start has been a masterclass in retail politics. Despite having the backing of Thiel—a conservative, heterodox billionaire entrepreneur—the Masters campaign started off lean, meeting small groups of voters in coffee shops and neighborhood pubs, criss-crossing the Copper State. In stark contrast to other candidates, pictures from the Masters campaign show him not speaking to voters from on high atop grand stages or behind stately lecterns, but on their level, literally and figuratively. Photos and videos posted to the campaign’s social media accounts show him constantly on the move to another meet-and-greet or spending time with his family.

Telling people in ad after ad and in debate after debate that the man they’re seeing in person, talking to, asking tough questions of on a regular basis is a “fake” strains credulity to an intolerable degree. It might work on a Mark Brnovich or a Mark Kelly, neither of whom are anywhere to be found amongst the people, but against Blake Masters, it has the opposite effect of its intended effect.

What the Masters campaign is up to in this race is nothing short of a restoration of the American dream and the institutions that make that dream possible. “Fed up” is an inadequate term to describe how Americans feel today. They feel as if they’re watching their country collapse in real time. Crippling inflation, a drug overdose and homelessness epidemic, a military and police recruitment collapse, the rolling back of institutional protections for free speech, and nuclear brinksmanship with the former enemy of our real enemy to name a few.

And Blake Masters has demonstrated that he thinks it’s as batshit crazy as we all do and isn’t afraid to say so.

So Jim Lamon can be forgiven for not being up to the task, but one can’t help but wonder what might’ve been had he run his campaign with a little dignity and a little class. The Masters campaign and his future role as Arizona’s junior senator is not comprised of Blake Masters alone. Along the way it has identified true patriots from all walks of life who just want what’s best for their fellow Americans, and who can help fulfill on the promises made during the campaign.

Jim Lamon won’t be along for the ride, though. For attempting to gaslight Arizonans (not Arizonians as he is wont to say) rather than make his case, Lamon can watch from the sidelines.

Onward, Mr. Masters.