Who Is Blake Masters?
We're coming dangerously close to the end of the campaign and most Arizonans still don't know Blake. What's the deal?
Well, it was written over a month ago and my advice wasn’t followed. Not even a little bit.
The poll numbers are, at the time of this writing, not very encouraging for Masters. I think there’s almost no question Republicans will punch above their poll numbers in Arizona, though, and expect Masters (“expect” as in trying hard to guess based on nothing more than my gut) will still probably squeak out a victory by a few points.
But it shouldn’t be this close. Given the far-left voting and general advocacy record of Mark Kelly, a candidate of Blake Masters’ caliber should be up a few points in Arizona (not unlike where J.D. Vance now is in Ohio).
I don’t care that Kelly’s funding dwarfs Masters’. Although it would be a lot easier for Masters to raise money if he would’ve pitched some ideas embraced widely by the intelligent left and right (there aren’t many, but there are some). But at the end of this campaign season, the key problem is that the average Arizona voter hasn’t been properly introduced to Masters. We know who Mark Kelly is. We’ve heard his story (okay, NASA, pretty cool, not gonna lie), seen his face, and heard his voice. He’s a known quantity.
Who is Blake Masters?
Introducing: Blake Masters
First, I’ll tell you who he really is. Then I’ll explain how the campaign has made him appear.
He’s a Stanford-educated-venture capitalist-former-COO-of-the-most-exciting-tech-fund-on-planet-earth-whiz kid from Arizona and co-author of one of the best business books of the past fifty years. Did I mention the tech fund he worked for is managed by one of America’s greatest gay conservative intellectuals/keynote speaker at Trump’s Republican National Convention, Peter Thiel? Did you know that? Does anybody, other than fanboys, know that? I don’t think so.
Masters has never bothered to introduce himself in an ad, to my knowledge. He just showed up on TV one day and started talking about the mess Mark Kelly and Joe Biden made of the border and our economy (both true and good points, but can we get a name first?).
From watching the campaign, we can glean that he’s a highly successful young conservative guy with a family. But that’s about it. And there’s a hell of a lot more there to know about the way he thinks, the history he knows, or the Constitution and Declaration he understands deeply, philosophically, as he does.
That’s who was missing from the campaign ads. In-person events are great, and Masters seemed very active on the trail, but you need prolonged cuts of you talking to crowds, answering questions, and building a movement.
Those events have to be manufactured just like a Trump Rally, but for a different audience that he missed, where he doesn’t have to always be joined at the hip with Trump.
Still time? I think so. Maybe.
Masters allowed Kelly to define him before he had defined himself. Masters was more-or-less a blank conservative slate for most voters until Mark Kelly said of him “We all know a guy like this”.
As I close this out, my feelings have changed somewhat dramatically since I started writing. I think Masters may win it still, but maybe just by 1% or less, and that’s terrifying to me. If the Masters campaign has any way on God’s green Earth to get Masters in front of a live camera for one hour by Friday to take tough questions from voters calling in or shouting questions in a crowd, they should expend all resources remaining to do that ASAP. Purchase a live TV segment and take calls from voters. Maybe contact PBS and see if they’ll let you. Just get him in front of the camera speaking from the heart.