Political Gunfight Between Trump and Pence in Arizona’s US Senate Race

Like two gunslingers from an old Western, Arizona may not be big enough—politically speaking—for former president Donald Trump and his former vice president Mike Pence.

Both plan to wage dueling rallies in the Grand Canyon State on July 22, just 10 days ahead of the August mid-term primary.

Trump will speak at a “Save America” event in Prescott to support a list of his campaign endorsements, including Arizona gubernatorial candidate front-runner Kari Lake and U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, who also leads in the polls.

In Phoenix, 100 miles away, Pence will hold a competing rally for Lake’s opponent Karrin Taylor Robson, who has the endorsement of both Pence and outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.

Former president Donald Trump at a “Save America” rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 9, 2022. Trump is due in Arizona for a rally for his chosen candidates, including Kari Lake who is running for governor, in the Republican primary on July 22. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Trump and Pence, however, stand far apart as they “battle for the soul” of the Republican Party in Arizona, one of five key battleground states where Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020 by a slim margin.

Nearly two years after the election, Trump holds firm in his belief that the election was stolen by Democrats using organized ballot harvesting and electronic tampering.

Pence has rejected that claim as false.

Trump’s Clout

The resulting partisan rift—Trump’s clout versus Pence’s doubt—has split the two erstwhile Republican friends and allies and served as a litmus test for their political endorsements in Arizona.

Lake and Masters haven’t wavered in their conviction the election was rife with cheating—”election fraud denialism,” their opponents call it.

Though Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has publicly stated there was no election fraud, observers