Republican primary voters keep picking worst possible candidates

When the Senate Republicans' second-in-command was asked last month about the prospect of election deniers entering the race for an Arizona Senate seat, he was less than enthusiastic.

“Any candidate in ’24 that has, as their principal campaign theme, a stolen election, is probably going to have the same issues that some of the ’22 candidates had,” Sen. John Thune of South Dakota told Politico.

But Thune didn't stop there. "It’s a swing state," Thune noted, "we need to have a good Republican nominee, obviously. You know, whoever gets in, I hope they focus on the future, not the past.”

The Arizona seat Republicans are hoping to flip is currently held by former Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who changed her party affiliation to independent. Progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego is challenging Sinema for the seat, a battle on the left that could presumably give Republicans a shot at wresting it from Democratic control. Yet two election deniers who fumbled their high-profile statewide races last year are eyeing a bid for the seat: Kari Lake and Blake Masters. And Thune’s message from on-high in Washington was not well-received by Grand Canyon State MAGA enthusiasts.