Since Trump left the White House he’s taken on a sort of kingmaker role within the Republican Party. As midterm elections approach Republican incumbents and challengers across the country are vying to get the thumbs up from the former president. This explains why Arizona Republican Jim Lamon is shelling out $18,000 to run an ad in New Jersey for two weeks while Trump is currently summering.
According to The Washington Examiner:
Trump’s endorsement could tip the scales in Arizona’s 2022 GOP Senate primary. To gain the upper hand, Lamon is appealing directly to Trump with a 30-second spot touting his border security bona fides exclusively on Fox News in northern New Jersey. The former president is spending the summer on his private golf club in Bedminster, 43 miles west of New York City.
“Chaos, crisis, children dropped alone in the desert,” Lamon says in the spot, which uses stark black and white images and film clips purporting to show illegal immigrants entering the United States to criticize incumbent Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and other Democrats of fomenting a crisis at the Mexican border. “Join me. Together we’ll stop drugs, gangs, and politicians.”
Roe described Lamon as a “movement conservative.” In addition to the money the Republican Senate contender is spending to reach Trump in New Jersey, per current ad purchases, he will have invested just under $1 million from when his campaign launched May 1 through the end of June to introduce himself to voters in Arizona. Lamon is advertising statewide on cable television with a slick 30-second biographical spot.
The 65-year-old Army veteran is the CEO of DEPCOM Power in Scottsdale, Arizona, a solar engineering corporation. He is a longtime donor to Republican candidates, GOP causes, and nonpolitical charities. According to his campaign website, Lamon recently contributed $2 million to an effort to register more Republican voters in Arizona — even though he is not a regular on the major donor circuit that, for instance, writes seven-figure checks to GOP super PACs.
So far, Lamon is among the first GOPers to announce his campaign.
