The Nastiest Primary Race in America Is Happening in Arizona

Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh are out to win, and maybe destroy one another. “Each of them wants to demonstrate their BDE,” said a consultant in the district.

Blake Masters
Blake Masters is going all out for a congressional nomination, even without Donald Trump’s endorsement. Matt York/AP

There is not an uglier, more personally bruising primary in America than the race for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District between Republicans Abe Hamadeh and Blake Masters.

Political sources closely following the race in the state say it is only likely to get worse.

“Dishonest Abe said America was founded on Islamic principles,” the narrator of Masters’ April ad says, with a picture of Hamadeh on a Hajj. In a debate, Masters suggested, unlike Hamadeh, he has “skin in the game” because Hamadeh doesn’t have children.