{"id":1650414,"date":"2022-09-21T07:08:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T11:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650414"},"modified":"2022-09-21T07:08:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T11:08:38","slug":"mcconnell-abandons-arizona-senate-race-to-maintain-a-gop-he-can-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcconnell-abandons-arizona-senate-race-to-maintain-a-gop-he-can-control\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell Abandons Arizona Senate Race To Maintain A GOP He Can Control"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmcconnell-abandons-arizona-senate-race-to-maintain-a-gop-he-can-control%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650414&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The top elected Republican in the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is abandoning the competitive Arizona Senate race \u2014 and potentially a Senate majority \u2014 to maintain a conference he can control in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Axios <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/09\/20\/mcconnell-aligned-super-pac-arizona-blake-masters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that McConnell\u2019s super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), is pulling another $9.6 million in television ads from the Arizona contest where Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters remains locked in a tight effort to unseat Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cancellations mean that the GOP\u2019s leading super PAC won\u2019t be spending any money in Arizona, one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country,\u201d Axios reported, adding that McConnell\u2019s allies are \u201cconfident other outside conservative groups will make up much of the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The $7.5 million tally from outside groups compiled by Axios, however, is far from making up \u201cmuch of the difference\u201d where Masters is outspent by Kelly upwards of 9 to 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/races\/summary?cycle=2022&amp;id=AZS1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to campaign finance data from OpenSecrets. And hosting a fundraiser for Masters, as McConnell has planned in lieu of direct financing, is mere lip service to claim the Republican Senate leader still supports the party\u2019s Arizona nominee. <\/p>\n<p>The reality is that McConnell would rather run a Senate minority that\u2019s beholden to the octogenarian lawmaker than a majority with solid Republicans who refuse to kiss the ring. The decision to pull nearly $10 million from the Arizona race comes less than a month after McConnell\u2019s super PAC <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/08\/26\/mcconnell-senate-arizona-alaska\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">canceled<\/a> another $8 million in ads planned for Masters. During the Republican Senate primary, Masters said he would not back McConnell for another term in GOP leadership. Alaska Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, whose contest is tied against incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kellyforak.com\/post\/kelly-tshibaka-statement-on-mitch-mcconnell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">also pledged<\/a> to vote for someone else to lead the Senate conference. <\/p>\n<p>After McConnell began to pull support from the Arizona race, an independent super PAC affiliated with Heritage Action for America <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/13\/heritage-action-steps-up-in-arizona-senate-race-after-mcconnell-pulls-8-million-from-masters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stepped up<\/a> to inject $5 million into the contest where Masters is within striking distance of Kelly. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/2022\/senate\/az\/arizona-senate-masters-vs-kelly-7390.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to the RealClearPolitics latest aggregate of polls \u2014 which are often biased to shape rather than reflect public opinion \u2014 Masters is down by just over 3 points, less than two months before November. McConnell, however, appears content to let Masters slip.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top elected Republican in the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is abandoning the competitive Arizona Senate race \u2014 and potentially a Senate majority \u2014 to maintain a conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1650414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1650414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1650414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1650414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1650414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}