GOP Summer of Chaos: Infighting Continues to Escalate in GOP Senate Primaries

This week, Senate Republicans’ “intraparty rifts that defined the 2022 cycle and contributed to the GOP’s loss[es]” were once again on full display in races across the map. New reporting from Newsweek details that the “clash” between the wealthy candidates recruited by national Republicans and candidates favored by the GOP’s MAGA base “continues to grow” and “threatens to further tear at the fabric of the GOP’s identity going into the 2024 election season.”

• In Arizona, a new report from The Daily Beast revealed Kari Lake and Blake Masters had an “intense,” “paranoid,” and “erratic” phone call, in which Masters told Lake she couldn’t win the Senate race and accused her of not taking the race “seriously.” Lake hit back, accusing Masters of “hid[ing] under the bed as soon as the election was over” and claiming he “turned to the GOP ‘establishment’—a dirty epithet for the MAGA faithful.” This comes after reports that Arizona Republicans are bracing for an “ugly primary fight,” “collision course,” and “extraordinarily volatile match-up” between Masters, Lake and Mark Lamb in a primary that “could prove a headache for the party.”
  

• In Montana, Tim Sheehy “blasted” Matt Rosendale, who is reportedly planning to enter the race. Meanwhile, Rosendale is “regularly attacking” Mitch McConnell and Sheehy, calling Sheehy an “out-of-touch Senate candidate” and “member of the Washington uniparty,” that the “RINO Establishment” is “lining up to install.” Rosendale’s potential entry leaves Senate Republicans to “worry a crowded primary may weaken their candidate in the general election, similar to the fate of many GOP candidates during the 2022 midterm elections.”

• In Nevada, a new report from The Nevada Independent revealed newly uncovered video footage of Sam Brown openly embracing “one of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country” without exceptions for rape or incest, saying: “On issues of life, that is a non-negotiable for me.
  

• In Ohio, Frank LaRose is facing questions for moving the Ohio Secretary of State office to the same building as his Senate campaign HQ and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. LaRose’s math isn’t adding up: he “says this move will save $11,000 a year in rent but the cost of relocating his office is $600,000 up front so it would take over 50 years to recover that money.”

• In West Virginia, Alex Mooney and Jim Justice continue to attack each other over their loyalties to the GOP and Donald Trump: Mooney — who is “back[ed] by the Club for Growth and Trump allies such as Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz” — “accused Mr. Justice of being nothing more than a Democrat disguised as a Republican,” adding that “Justice didn’t even vote for President Trump in 2016. He ran as a Democrat.” Justice struck back, calling Mooney’s attacks “just plain garbage” and “tout[ing] his close ties to the Trump family.” Mooney also accused Justice of putting West Virginians last, “abandon[ing] his job as governor,” and leaving “West Virginians behind to save his own skin,” citing a recent op-ed claiming Justice has “give[n] up on his day job of governor.” 

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