Abe Hamadeh and Blake Masters have few donors in the House district where they're running

A couple of the leading U.S. House candidates running in Arizona's 8th Congressional District live outside it and are attracting few in-district campaign donors, according to federal finance reports.

Since incumbent Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko’s October announcement that she isn't running for reelection, the GOP primary race in her strong red district has gotten crowded.

Five frontrunners have emerged in the race: prosecutor and former Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, who former President Donald Trump has endorsed; venture capitalist and former U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters; Arizona Speaker of the House Ben Toma, who Lesko endorsed; state Sen. Anthony Kern, one of Arizona's fake 2020 Republican electors; and former U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, who previously represented the area in Congress from 2003 to 2017 before resigning amid accusations of sexual harassment.

In their campaign finance reports, one important detail about the candidates comes out: Whether they live in the district or not.

Despite having the most cash on hand, Masters, who lives in Tucson, only had two residents of the 8th district donate to his campaign, which is just 3% of his total donors, according to his yearend 2023 campaign finance report.

Similarly, the Trump-endorsed Hamadeh, who lives in Scottsdale, only had seven individual donors from the 8th district in his yearend report, which accounts for 6% of his total donors.

“It’s painfully obvious that Abe Hamadeh and Blake Masters do not live in the district,” Toma’s campaign manager Chad Willems said. “They have very little ties to the district.”

Both Hamadeh and Masters have faced criticism for being “carpetbaggers” in the race. Kern said the two “have zero experience and they don’t live in the district.”

The other three high-profile candidates, Kern, Toma and Franks, have a legislative history in the district.

Kern and Toma both represent District 27 in their respective bodies of the Arizona Legislature. The area that they serve is located in Peoria, which is inside the 8th Congressional District. Franks, who did not submit a yearend finance report, represented in the U.S. House a precursor to what is now the 8th district.

Kern and Toma had more in-district donors than their out-of-district competitors. Crediting his “boots on the ground strategy,” Kern had 19 individual donors who live in the district, which was 54% of his total donors.

Toma had the most individual donors from the district at 48, which was 26% of his total donors.

“Ben and I both live in the district,” said Kern, who told The Arizona Republic he believes the race will be between him and Toma. “We know a lot about the intricacies of the district.”

The amount of donors from the 8th district “didn’t come as a surprise” for Toma, Willems said, because “he has a lot of support within the district.”

“We’re very happy and very excited about the number of people in the district that are actually supporting him,” Willems said.

While he has the least amount of donors from the district, Masters still leads the pack with more than $1 million in campaign funds, according to the first batch of campaign finance reports. However, $1 million is from himself and another $88,000 came from the Masters Victory Committee, which was Masters’ fundraising committee during his 2022 Senate run.

"I believe in my campaign, I'm asking others to donate, so why not literally put my money where my mouth is," Masters told The Republic about his self-funded campaign. "I think this is an investment in the future of the district and the future of the state and the future of the country."

While fundraising the most out of his Republican opponents, Toma follows Masters with more than $340,000 in campaign funds. Hamadeh and Kern trail with $272,000 and $115,000, respectively. For each candidate, money has been spent on mailers, polling, political consultants, website development, campaign merchandise and more.

Aside from individual donors, significant funds have come from the GOP’s fundraising platform Winred and Republican House member-affiliated political action committees, or PACs.

Hamadeh has financially benefitted from his Trump endorsement as he received $115,000 through Winred. On March 19, the day of Arizona's presidential preference election, he was the beneficiary of a Florida fundraising event at Trump’s Mar-a-Largo Club, hosted by Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Trump adviser. Big names in the Trumpworld were in attendance, including Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“Our campaign is driven by grassroots support of patriots across the district and the country,” Hamadeh said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic.

The Mar-a-Largo event for Hamadeh raised more than $200,000 for the candidate, said Erica Knight, Hamadeh's spokesperson.

Toma and Masters also got funding through Winred, receiving around $84,000 and $55,000 from the organizations, respectively. Kern did not receive funding from the organization.

Notably, Toma outraised his opponents in PAC funds, taking in a total of $21,000 from nine political action committees. Those committees ranged from the conservative Koch brothers' organization to leadership committees affiliated with Republican members of the U.S. House to the tech industry.

“The end of 2023 was just the beginning,” Willems said. “We’re anticipating a really nice quarter coming up here.”

Reach reporter Morgan Fischer at morgan.fischer@gannett.com or on X, formally known as Twitter, @morgfisch.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who is raising the most money in race to replace Rep. Debbie Lesko?