Arizona Libertarian leaves Senate race, backs Masters

(NewsNation) — Arizona Libertarian Senate candidate Marc Victor recently dropped out of the race and put out a call to Republican candidate Blake Masters and Democrat Mark Kelly: sit and speak with me and I might endorse you.

Only Masters agreed to sit and speak with Victor and now the Republican vying to unseat the incumbent Kelly has the endorsement of Victor, an endorsement that could swing the tightly contested race.

“I said, “Look, if you want me to back down and endorse you, here’s what you got to do,” Victor told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on Thursday. “Sit down and have an open and transparent conversation with me and convince me that it’s in the interest of what I care about, which is freedom, peace and civility, convince me that it makes sense for those interests for me to step down and endorse you and then I will. That was the challenge I put out there.”

Victor met with Masters and said although the conversation was not as long as he would have liked, it was enough to get his endorsement.

Masters also won an endorsement from former President Donald Trump largely because he has vocally backed Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election. But for Victor, it is more about who was willing to have an open dialogue with him.

In response to a question from Vittert, Victor said he wasn’t bothered by Masters’ evolving position on abortion. At the start of his campaign, Masters said he was 100% pro-life. Now, he’s narrowed his objections to late-term and partial-birth abortions.

“Well, people are entitled to change their minds, that’s fair enough,” Victor said. “I don’t hold people accountable. People can change their minds. I get that. I also understand politics, people run to … their party in the primary; they get to the middle” in the general election. “That’s why I’m not a politician.”