MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — When Rep. Debbie Lesko announced she would not be seeking reelection, it opened one of the most coveted congressional seats for Arizona Republicans.
Congressional District 8 is widely considered one of the state's safest Republican districts. It stretches from Glendale to just below Black Canyon City and encompasses several wealthy retirement communities like Sun City West. It’s all but guaranteed that whoever wins the July 30 Republican primary will go on to represent the district.
It's a safe district, but it's also been a bloody race. All of the candidates occupy approximately the same space on the political spectrum, so it's been a battle of who can be the most ideologically pure conservative. It's a race with nasty campaign ads and a lot of money coming in.
We looked into the latest Federal Election Commission reports to reveal more details about their financial backing.
Trent Franks
Franks is a former eight-term congressman previously representing CD8 who resigned from his position in 2017 after two female staffers said he offered them money in exchange for carrying his child.
How much has he raised?
Franks has raised $643,100.01. Of that amount, $43,093.79 came from individual contributions while Franks loaned the remaining $600,000 to his own campaign. Franks’ campaign reported having $267,947.50 on hand as of July 10.
How much has he spent?
Franks’ campaign reported spending $504,725.25. Of that amount, $10,101.52 was paid to the nonprofit conservative lobbying group, the Center for Arizona Policy. Franks’ campaign also paid $10,000 to the anti-abortion It Goes Too Far initiative. Most of the campaign’s operational expenditures have gone to voter outreach and consulting fees.
Who are his top donors?
As of July 10, Trent’s campaign received $6,600 from Forbes billionaire and director of Texas-based property management company Marbella Interests, Bryan Sheffield. FEC reports show that Franks had 20 separate individual donors, himself included.
Abe Hamadeh
Hamadeh previously ran against Democrat Kris Mayes in the race for Arizona Attorney General. He is still contesting his loss in the 2022 election. Hamadeh has former president Donald Trump’s endorsement.
How much has he raised?
Hamadeh has raised $1,365,356.94 in total with $943,656.97 coming from individual contributions. Hamadeh himself contributed $5,000 and loaned $394,000 to his campaign. The campaign ended the reporting period with $214,324.67 on hand.
How much has he spent?
Hamadeh’s campaign spent $1,151,032.27 but has refunded $21,500 of that. At one point, Hamadeh’s campaign spent $21,480.95 for facility rental and catering services at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago. On a separate occasion, it spent $16,228.56 for more facility rentals there. His campaign finished the reporting period with $465,139.68 in debts and loans.
Who are his top donors?
In addition to his own money, Hamadeh’s wealthy brother, Waseem Hamadeh of HOH Investment Group directly contributed $13,200 to the campaign. He’s also made significant contributions to the pro-Hamadeh Arizona's Bold Era PAC.
The massive WinRed PAC has contributed $320,350.33 to Hamadeh’s campaign — the highest total of any candidate running for the seat.
Hamadeh had 236 individual contributors.
Sen. Anthony Kern
Sen. Kern currently represents Arizona State Senate District 27. He previously represented District 20 in the State House of Representatives but lost his bid for reelection in 2020. Kern has been charged with nine felonies in the Arizona "fake electors" scheme following the 2020 presidential election.
How much has he raised?
Kern’s campaign has reportedly raised $205,813.88 with $144,634.17 coming from individual contributions. Kern also loaned $50,000 to his campaign. The campaign ended the period with $16,209.93 on hand.
How much has he spent?
Kern’s campaign reported spending $189,603.95 with $49,830.71 owed in debts and loans. His campaign’s largest expenditure was $12,750 to Outfront Media for billboard advertising.
Who are his top donors?
Kern’s campaign reportedly received $8,099.00 from the Real Republican Reform PAC. Kern and Kelly Cooper, who is running for CD4, were the only candidates to receive contributions from this PAC. These contributions were marked as excessive and slated to be refunded. Kern also received $824.21 from WinRed.
Blake Masters
Masters won Trump's endorsement in his 2022 races for the U.S. Senate, beating four other candidates in the primaries. Masters lost that election to the sitting Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. Masters has strong ties to California billionaire Peter Thiel.
How much has he raised?
Of the $4,005,423.94 Masters’ campaign has raised, only $375,617.09 was from individual contributions. Masters loaned $3,500,000 to his campaign. At the end of the reporting period, Masters had $975,640.62 on hand.
How much has he spent?
Masters’ campaign had $3,029,783.32 in total disbursements. While $2,229,512.62 of that went into operating expenditures, Masters also refunded himself $800,000. The campaign’s largest payment was $47,600.00 to The Synapse Group, a Colorado-based consulting firm.
Who are his top donors?
Masters is far and away his own largest contributor, putting $3.5 million into his own campaign. Following that, WinRed has contributed $164,988.70 to the campaign.
In terms of individual donors, Masters has received thousands of dollars from New York and California executives such as the Winklevoss Twins and Thiel Macro LLC’s CIO, Jason Lupatkin.
Masters had 136 individual donors, including himself, WinRed and the Masters Victory Committee PAC.
Rep. Ben Toma
Rep. Toma was elected to represent Arizona House of Representatives 27th district in 2016 and began serving as state speaker of the house in 2023.
How much has he raised?
Toma’s campaign reported raising $847,884.14 with a vast majority of that ($781,884.14) coming from individual contributors. Toma received the remaining $66,000 from other committees. The campaign had $169,647.01 on hand as of the July 10 report.
How much has he spent?
Toma’s campaign spent $678,237.13 with only $1,000 going to individual refunds. The largest expenses were for fundraising consulting and advertising expenses. Toma’s campaign did not report any outstanding debts.
Who are his top donors?
Toma’s largest single contributions have come from the National Apartment Association PAC, Enterprise Mobility PAC, American Bankers Association PAC, Salt River Valley Water Users' Association PIC and Koch Industries, INC. PAC. All five of these groups contributed $5,000 to the campaign.
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