Masters effectively hit Kelly on the border, inflation, abortion and election integrity and clearly won the debate. Libertarian Mark Victor made good points but seemed naïve on others.
Border Security
Mark Kelly claimed to oppose open border Democrats yet as Blake Masters pointed out, when push comes to shove, Kelly votes with Democrats 100% of the time. Masters pointed out that Kelly voted against boosting the number of border patrol agents, but voted for adding 87,000 IRS agents.
In our opinion, regarding fentanyl mentioned by Masters, the last thing the US needs is to empower the federal government (e.g. the FBI) even more over yet another war on drugs. Just close the border and secure the checkpoints. Stop with one drug panic after another, the FBI isn't on our side so stop giving them more power and money.
Illegal Immigration and Amnesty
Mark Kelly called Blake Masters mean for opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants in deferred deportation action for childhood arrivals, DACA. Yet, on the merit of law and order, illegal immigrants need to be deported. Although he made many excellent points on all the issues discussed, Libertarian Mark Victor was, like many Republicans and Libertarians, naïve on the issue. If you want to advance to cause of liberty, then you need to have voters who support you. Illegal immigrants who got amnesty in the recent past ended up voting for Democrats by margins of around 80:20. If you are on the side of liberty, which includes opposing the Democrat Party, then you have to oppose importing more voters for them. You can't be nice on this issue if you are on the right, and also stay in power. It's mutually exclusive, just ask California Republicans. Blake Masters stated that the correct number of illegal immigrants is zero, 0.
Inflation
Blake Masters pointed out correctly that Mark Kelly voted for the Build Back Better Act, which not even the other Democrat Arizona Senator, Kyrsten Sinema, supported. It failed because of opposition of all Republicans and Democrats Sinema and Manchin. Kelly voted for it. Mark Kelly told a story, made up or real, about his mother not being able to pay for all bills when he was a child. He did this, as he explained, to show voters that he feels their pain and can relate to their issues with inflation. Yet, this is irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that Kelly voted for every reckless spending proposal of the Biden-Harris administration and is hence one of the primary causes for today's rapid inflation.
Kelly also admitted, somewhat underhanded, that he supported lock downs, which are the other side of the inflation coin. Lockdowns caused shortages of goods, and hence skyrocketing prices. Kelly was also wrong to claim that the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act will reduce inflation. Masters hammered Kelly on the 87,000 IRS agents that the law adds to the federal workforce. Kelly tried to defend himself claiming that those agents are needed to "go after" big businesses and billionaires. Masters correctly pointed out that most of those additional agents will be used to audit small businesses and middle class families. Masters should have added that the Biden-Harris regime will also use those agents to punish their political opposition.
Abortion
Mark Kelly attempted to paint Blake Masters as an abortion radical. Yet, Masters was prepared for that and pointed out for the audience that Mark Kelly sponsored a bill that would codify allowing abortions for any reason up to the moment of birth. Masters says that he supports a federal bill that would limit abortion to within 15 weeks after conception, with the usual exceptions for the time after. However, we point out that this proposal is also problematic because Republicans celebrated the abolition of Roe v Wade as a win for states rights. If you want states rights, then let the states decide it, not the feds.
Election Integrity
Blake Masters stated that he did not see evidence for cheating in the electoral process of the 2020 Presidential Election. Instead he pointed out that the suppression of the Hunter Biden story by big traditional and social media may have changed the election results. Masters accused the FBI of being complicit in this suppression of true information. As an example, the New York Post's twitter account was blocked after they broke the Hunter Biden laptop story. The FBI appeared to have been suppressing information about the case as well and has to this day not charged Biden with anything despite fairly obvious shenanigans going on, which include the "big guy", Joe Biden.
Mark Kelly claimed that we do elections well in Arizona. Yet only in August 2022 Arizonans had to wait for nearly a week before they found out that Kari Lake had won the Republican primaries against Karrin Taylor Robson. In fact, on election night Taylor Robson was ahead, when in the end Lake won quite comfortably by around 5% (48% : 43.1%).
Conclusion
Compared to the hapless Martha McSally, Blake Masters is a much better candidate, optically, rhetorically and with respect to policies. If elected Masters would instantly be on of the best US Senators.
Mark Kelly looked small and ineffective. However, compared to his 2020 run against the incumbent McSally - who was appointed, not elected - Kelly is now an incumbent himself and has astronomical funding. Kelly has raised more than $50 Million, while Masters only raised $5 Million. These advantages can to some extent negate his obvious weaknesses and his far left radicalism. It also shows that if Republicans properly funded Masters, he'd likely be ahead in the polls.
As of now, Kelly is ahead in the polls by around 5%. However, polls can be, and often have been wrong. Masters would be a huge upgrade for Arizona. Let's hope that the majority of Arizonans recognize this through the negative ad noise of the Kelly campaign, in collusion with most of the media, and vote accordingly.