You ready?

I was born ready.

Welcome to the advisory opinions podcast. I'm David Rintwisar Isger and we've got a lot to talk about today.

One thing about August, when you go to one time a week law, one time a week in Geekery, it tends to make the law part of the August podcast action packed.

So, but we're not going to start with law. For me, for me, I'm going to ask Sarah a few questions about the primaries.

Not a lot there today for those who are saying that the Republican party is that Donald Trump is losing his grip on the Republican party.

Would you say?

Okay, let me, I'll try to make the best case, which is mostly that the case that Donald Trump still has a grip on the party didn't get a lot of support last night either.

And here's my reasoning for that one. Yes, Trump endorsed Blake Masters who then won the Arizona Senate primary last night.

But Blake Masters has actually been an exceptional candidate who's gotten support from really across the board.

He's maybe caricaturized a little bit in the Josh Hawley JD Vance populism, but his brand of populism I thought was quite more nuanced and well done than some of the other forms of populism.

You know, one of the core messages of his campaign and some of the best ads I've seen this cycle have been from Blake Masters, by the way, on this message, which is that you shouldn't need a two income household to survive in America, let alone succeed in America.

It's a message that I would have heard from like a Midwestern Democrat in 1992 and it would have seemed cliche almost boring.

And a Republican doing it in 2022, you know, got calls from the Arizona Democratic Party that he was being sexist and then of course they pointed out Democrats saying the same thing and around and around we go.

But regardless, I again, we can put the ad in the show notes. He had several of them, but the one that made sort of the biggest splash on this.

It was just a good ad. He turned out to be a good first time candidate, which isn't always the case.

Um, he impressed people kind of across the conservative political spectrum.

So to say that somehow he's proof that Donald Trump has a grip on the party.

I don't think so. I think that's just proof that good candidates rise and that his opponents weren't as good, frankly as candidates.

Okay, move on to Arizona governor's race. It's still as too close to call by the time we're taping this, which is Wednesday.

And look, that one's pretty greater evidence.

But it's better evidence on both side.

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