Sen. McSally’s GOP primary opponent took SBA loans, but then says he didn’t

Republican Sen. Martha McSally’s Arizona senate seat will be one of the most hotly contested races in the 2020 presidential election cycle.

Sen. McSally (R), who was appointed to the seat by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (D) and endorsed by both the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and President Trump, is facing a potentially contentious and costly general election race against former Rep. Gaby Giffords’s husband, Democrat Mark Kelly.

But before she can focus on Kelly and the entire Democratic Party apparatus, McSally may have to face off in a Republican primary contest, a scenario the state and national Democrats welcome.

Business owner Dan McCarthy, who recently suggested annexing Mexico by telling Mexicans to “petition to become states of for the United States,” is all in to challenge McSally.

McCarthy’s self-inflicted immigration problem will be used against him, but what could be more problematic for the Trump-supporting McCarthy is trying to explain taking $1.7 million in SBA loans, and then denying he did.

According to the federal government’s USAspending.gov website, on August 3, 2018, two of McCarthy’s businesses, Makeup Eraser And 800 Specialists LLC, received two separate SBA awards, one for $350,000, and the other for $1,358,000.

Then a little over a month later, on September 18^th to be precise, McCarthy appeared on the local “Fighting Back” radio show, where he was asked directly whether he took any government loans for his businesses.

McCarthy incredibly stated “No.”

“No. We um… I can tell you that this organization, not only was it not assisted by anything than just American, just grit,” said McCarthy

McCarthy doubled-down on his assertion on response over receiving government loans, saying “at one point in time” he “brought some investors in” but did not take a government loan.

"So there was a point in time that we brought some investors in and we’ve done some of those type of things, but no"

McCarthy’s first campaign finance filing yesterday showed he raised $561 and loaned his campaign $119,648.50. He ended the third quarter with a little of $71,977 cash on hand. McSally raised over $3 million and has over $5.6 million cash on hand, for the same period.

Arizona will hold its primary election on August 4, 2020.