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Blake Masters is engaged in an exciting race for one of the seats that could determine who runs the Senate.
But there is always time for Halloween.
“You have to trick or treat,” he told DailyMail.com Monday afternoon. ‘You have to trick or treat’
So after a busy morning of fundraising phone calls and media interviews, he did what any self-respecting father of three boys would do: he dressed up as C-3PO, the annoyingly pedantic protocol droid from Star Wars, and led his family down their street in Tucson. Arizona.
“You look good,” a neighbor yelled from a front yard decorated with placards for Democratic Senate nominee Mark Kelly and Masters’ bitter rival. ‘Beautiful costumes.
A slew of polls has seen the Arizona race tighten with just a week to go, as Masters hammers out a hard-on-illegal immigration message.
The 36-year-old is backed by Donald Trump and his hardline stances on the border and abortion have made him a hate figure for the left.
But on Monday night, he was just another dad dealing with excited kids.
“Graham, if you do that again, I’ll take the lightsaber away,” he said, wrapping his middle son, who was dressed as Darth Vader and just eight-year-old Miles, dressed as Luke Skywalker, around the head.
Blake Masters, the Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, and his wife Catherine, with children (from left) Miles, eight, Lex, two, and Graham, six, go trick or treating as Star Wars characters near their home in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday night
Masters, 36, is entering the final week of a hard-fought battle but still found time to dress up as protocol droid C-3PO, while wife Catherine, 35, wears the iconic look of Princess Leia from the first Star Wars movie. put on, complete with her hair in side buns
The master’s costume included thigh pads made from toaster panels and gold pants found at a thrift store
His wife Catherine, 35, was dressed as Princess Leia in her famous flowing white robes and side buns. The youngest son Rex, two, in an R2-D2 outfit completed the party.
She said it was a rare moment of family time in a busy campaign.
“This is beautiful,” she said, “but very, very rare.”
New polls had yielded mixed reports in the morning – one suggested Masters stood his ground just a point behind Kelly, but another suggested the incumbent senator was opening a gap.
For Masters, however, the main issue of the afternoon was how to keep his boys from breaking their lightsabers over each other’s heads and how to keep his thigh guards — made from old toaster panels — from sliding off his thrift store gold. pants up to his ankles.
Catherine said it was a side of her husband few people thought of when they taunted him on the campaign trail.
‘In the beginning it was very difficult. It really opened my eyes to how these things are done,” she said as they strolled down a residential street shaded by palm trees and the occasional cactus.
“Because I know him and how wonderful he is.”
She said the three boys loved Star Wars. The eldest had refused a haircut for the past week to ensure he had young Skywalker’s wavy locks.
Masters is locked in too close-to-call Senate race. But on Monday, he put that aside to dress like C-3PO
The Masters planned to party with other families in a park before a trick-or-treat parade would take place through the neighborhood
Neighbors recognized Masters immediately, despite the outfit. One shouted praise for the costumes from her front yard
Their plan was to walk to a park where hundreds of families would gather for a celebration, before leaving in a trick-or-treat procession.
The older kids tended to run ahead and create an atmosphere of chaos, Masters said with a smile.
It would all be followed by an effort to get their kids to trade in some of their sweets for healthier treats.
“You just get so much candy. It’s so terrible,” he said. “So we always do a trade-in program and we give them more of something that is, still sweet but healthy when they trade in their Twix or something.
“So let’s have them some bad stuff.”
His race is on the cutting edge.
Masters has found support for his message on border security, in a state that is on the frontline of illegal migration
Last week, the influential Cook Political Report moved the contest from the “lean Democratic” column to “toss up territory.”
Like other Republicans across the country, he found that anger over inflation and the economy continued to fuel voter resentment long after Democrats enjoyed a Roe v Wade wave. In Arizona, anger over illegal immigration is also pushing voters his way.
A poll released Monday for the conservative Club for Growth Action showed Kelly’s lead was just one point in their poll of 800 likely voters in Arizona.
But a New York Times-Siena College poll was less favorable. It turned out that Kelly Masters led by 51 percent to 45 percent among voters.
Masters dismissed that poll as a fraud.
“They’re really so bad that I don’t know if they’re that bad or if it’s just a suppression poll where they’re trying to put their thumbs on the scale and demoralizing Republican voters,” he said.
But polls have also suggested he struggles to convince voters to like him. A September poll by Maris College found that only 32 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Masters, compared to 48 who viewed it unfavorably.
Kelly’s numbers were reversed: 47 percent had a favorable impression to 39 percent unfavorable.
The New York Times poll brings the numbers closer.
Masters blames Kelly’s massive TV spend — which was three times the GOP spending earlier in the campaign — and attempts to define him not so much as C-3PO, but as Halloween horror.
“He’s spent about $30 or $40 million on TV ads that defame me to make me look like a vampire monster. It’s clearly a caricature of who I am,” he said.
“But you know, people watch TV and they see things like this, so I’m sure that has had an effect.
“But actually I think Kelly’s favors are below 50%. Mine too. I think we have a fair fight now.
“The difference is that he had to lie to get there. What I’ve had to do is tell the truth.”