Trump Pours Money Into Arizona as Blake Masters Trails Mark Kelly

A political action committee backed by former President Donald Trump funneled $1 million into Arizona on Tuesday as a Republican candidate in a key midterm race continues to trail his Democratic opponent.

AdImpact, which tracks political spending, tweeted Tuesday that MAGA Inc. added more spending in four U.S. Senate races, with the highest expenditure taking place in Arizona. On Wednesday, AdImpact provided a breakdown of how much MAGA Inc. has spent in five general U.S. Senate races in a 20-day period.

With $2.89 million, Arizona topped the list. Pennsylvania and Ohio came in second and third with $2.65 million and $2.39 million from MAGA Inc., respectively, while Nevada and Georgia took the final two spots.

The U.S. Senate race in Arizona centers Republican candidate Blake Masters, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. It is one of a few high-profile Senate matchups viewed as an important deciding factor in which political party will have control of the upper chamber of Congress.

FiveThirtyEight's election model shows that Democrats are slightly favored to win the Senate, with 55 out of 100 outcomes resulting in a Democratic majority. Democrats may not fare as well in the House of Representatives, which Republicans are favored to win in 81 out of 100 outcomes in FiveThirtyEight's model.

Kelly is a retired astronaut who is looking to secure his first full term in the U.S. Senate. He took office in December 2020 after Arizona residents chose him in a special election to serve the remainder of the late Senator John McCain's term.

Masters, a venture capitalist and author, has been generally trailing Kelly in polls. FiveThirtyEight's polling average shows the Democrat leading by 4.2 points with 47.8 percent of support compared to Masters' 43.6 percent. Some recent surveys have shown Kelly with a tighter lead.

In one Trafalgar Group poll conducted from October 16 to 17, for example, Kelly received 47 percent of support compared to Masters' 46 percent for a 1-point advantage.

MAGA Inc. sought to give Masters a boost on Wednesday by launching a new ad targeting Kelly by saying that he and other Democrats have been "lying through their teeth" about conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border, CNN reported. Average monthly encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have been three times higher under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration, according to U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) data. Republicans have seized on what they describe as the Biden administration's "open border" policies and politicians who support or don't directly condemn them.

With about two weeks until the midterm elections, it remains unclear if any last-minute spending from the Trump-backed MAGA Inc. in Arizona will be enough to help Masters secure a win.

Newsweek reached out to MAGA Inc. and the campaigns of Masters and Kelly for comment.