Ric Grenell, an ally of former President Trump and his former Acting Director of the U.S. National Intelligence, has unendorsed Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon.
Grenell — who launched a group to aggressively promote engagement among California’s unregistered voters after leaving the Trump administration and declining to run in the recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) — released a statement saying why he “can no longer support his candidacy.”
US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell awaits the arrival of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (not in frame) at Tegel airport in Berlin on May 31, 2019. – The US top diplomat is on a European tour that will take him to Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Britain. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP) (Photo credit should read ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump ally stated that “growing our conservative movement should be the top priority of every Republican candidate,” which Lamon understood but has since gone away from by “attacking courageous conservatives” and his friend, Peter Thiel, whom Grenell claims has done a lot for the conservative movement.
“The tactics Jim Lamon is now using in his race are wrong, and I can no longer support him,” Grenell explained.
Earlier today, I told @jim_lamon that I can no longer support his candidacy. pic.twitter.com/BmESzdPtSL
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 15, 2022
Grenell said that attacking Thiel is “a bad strategy that only helps elect Democrats” since Thiel has “been a champion of conservative values in Silicon Valley and has never wavered from challenging Big Tech.”
“I have made clear multiple times that the Jeff Roe strategy of attacking Peter may be profitable for Jeff’s firm now, but it is a losing strategy for our conservative movement,” he finished.
Grennell refers to Jeff Roe, the founder of Axiom Strategies, a “full-service GOP political, public affairs, and public relations firm.”
One of Lamon’s Republican opponents is Blake Masters, who is backed by Thiel and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. In fact, following the announcement of Trump’s endorsement, Lamon melted down in a lengthy statement and released an attack ad on Masters, which falsely claimed he was antisemitic.
Worse for Lamon, the loss of Grenell’s endorsement comes after the Trafalgar Group released a poll on Monday that showed Masters increasing his lead in the Republican primary. He increased by ten points since April and Trump’s endorsement.
Arizona Senate Republican Primary Poll
+- Changes from Trafalgar’s April Poll
Blake Masters 28.9% (+9.5)
Mark Brnovich 23.7% (-0.2)
Jim Lamon 17.2% (-7.6)
Michael McGuire 4.4% (-3.8)
Justin Olson 4% (+0.9)@trafalgar_group / June 7-9 / 1,077 LV pic.twitter.com/RZ0ivo1qjW— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 13, 2022
The poll showed Masters with 28.9 percent, Mark Brnovich with 23.7 percent, Lamon with 17.2 percent, Michael McGuire with 4.4 percent, and Justin Olson with four percent.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.