Anti-Retiree GOP Candidates Win Primaries

August 05, 2022

Anti-Retiree GOP Candidates Win Primaries

Many candidates who advanced in primaries this week can be added to the list of those running this November who have publicly attacked Social Security and Medicare, including in important races like Arizona and Washington.

Blake Masters, a Trump-backed candidate who won the Republican primary for Senate in Arizona, has called for the privatization of Social Security, even going so far as to say that he expects this essential earned benefit to not be there for future generations. He will face Sen. Mark Kelly (AZ) this November.

In Colorado and Washington, Republican candidates Tiffany Smiley and Joe O’Dea seek to unseat Democratic Senators Patty Murray (WA) and Michael Bennett (CO), respectively. O’Dea has said he supports “cutting entitlements,” code words for cuts in Social Security and Medicare. Both candidates are strongly backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, chaired by Sen. Rick Scott (FL), whose election-year campaign plan would sunset Medicare and Social Security in five years.

Several prominent Republicans have publicly supported Sen. Scott’s plan, including Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) and Sen. Ron Johnson (WI). Sen. Johnson said he favors an even more extreme plan this week, saying that Social Security and Medicare should be re-approved on an annual basis by Congress, ending the earned benefits program as we know it.

“The number of dangerous schemes to cut or end Social Security and Medicare being discussed by Republican politicians is alarming,” said Alliance Executive Director Richard Fiesta. “It’s clear that Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot this November and seniors need to pay attention or risk losing the benefits they have earned over a lifetime.”