Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters is hitting Democrats on affirmative action and their “diversity obsession” in a video released Monday on Twitter.
In the roughly minute-and-a-half selfie-styled video, Masters declared “news for Joe Biden, we are done with this affirmative action regime.”
“You know, if you want to see the affirmative action regime on display, just look at Biden’s White House. Biden promised that he would choose a woman for his VP. Then of course, he chose Kamala Harris, so incompetent, she can’t even get a sentence out,” he said in the video. “But I’ve never spoken to anyone who can say with a straight face that Kamala was somehow the most qualified candidate for that job.”
He argued that Democrats are “addicted” to identity politics, arguing that they did not care about whether a candidate was qualified or good at their job but only cared about their appearance.
Affirmative action has been used in a range of institutions including in higher education spaces, job settings and elsewhere in an effort to provide equal opportunities for people of marginalized backgrounds, pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. Affirmative action policies have been used as a way to address historical discrimination in those fields, though it remains a hotly debated issue.
Masters is going head to head with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) for Kelly’s seat in Arizona, which has been ranked a “toss up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Masters’ video on affirmative action isn’t the first time he’s waded into the discussion on race.
Masters, who is white, quote-tweeted a statement he made the day before in which he sarcastically alluded to the idea that the economy was not doing well because of diversity efforts at the Federal Reserve.
“Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well,” Masters tweeted, quote-tweeting a tweet from The Associated Press that noted how the Federal Reserve’s leadership had become the most diverse in years.
The statement and video are seen as a larger effort by Republicans to wade into the culture wars, which targets other issues like critical race theory (CRT) and transgender women and girls competing in sports.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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This story was originally published August 30, 2022 9:21 AM.
