Arizona Republican running for Senate implies affirmative action at the Fed is hurting the economy

Ella Ceron

Bloomberg

<p>Blake Masters, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Arizona, said in a sarcastic tweet that the current racial and gender diversity at the Federal Reserve is responsible for the U.S.’s current economic outlook.</p><div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">



<p>The candidate, who was&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/campaigns/3607434-kelly-leads-trump-backed-masters-by-8-points-in-arizona-senate-race-poll/" target="_blank">trailing</a>&nbsp;Mark Kelly, the Democratic incumbent,&nbsp;by eight points in a <a href="https://fortune.com/company/fox/" target="_blank">Fox</a> News poll released last&nbsp;week, re-tweeted an Associated Press report that detailed the&nbsp;record number of women, as well as Black and openly LGBTQ&nbsp;people, in key roles at the Federal Reserve. “Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well,” Masters remarked&nbsp;on Sunday. Responses ranged from open endorsement, to blistering&nbsp;accusations of&nbsp;bigotry and racism.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well <a href="https://t.co/Ub2CeiyjCs">https://t.co/Ub2CeiyjCs</a></p>&mdash; Blake Masters (@bgmasters) <a href="https://twitter.com/bgmasters/status/1564086031246311427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“I don’t care if every single employee at the Fed is a Black lesbian, as long as they’re hired for their competence and not because of what they look like,” Masters&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://mobile.twitter.com/bgmasters/status/1564377775674368003" target="_blank">added</a>&nbsp;in a video posted Monday night. He went on to slam affirmative action.&nbsp;“I can’t think of a single policy since the end of Jim Crow that’s been worse or more divisive for race relations.”</p></blockquote>



<p>Representatives for Masters, a longtime associate of billionaire investor Peter Thiel,&nbsp;did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, Politico reported that the Senate Republicans’ super PAC was cutting around $8 million in ad spending&nbsp;in Arizona through September.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-22/fed-diversity-is-improving-it-still-has-a-long-way-to-go?sref=VLsP8x9g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">currently</a>&nbsp;five female Federal Reserve bank presidents, including&nbsp;Lorie Logan, who leads the Dallas branch.&nbsp;Lisa Cook is the Federal Reserve’s first Black female governor. Federal Reserve data released in May, however, show that the overwhelming majority of employees are male and White.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Further, four of the 12 Federal Reserve banks don’t employ a single Black economist, and there has never been a Latino leader at the organization. Women comprise fewer than a third of the economists at the central board as well as 11 of the 12 branches. The board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-13/fed-board-employs-just-one-black-economist-diversity-data-show?sref=VLsP8x9g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">counts</a>&nbsp;one Black man&nbsp;among its 400 economists. There are currently no Black female economists at the board. The bank employs&nbsp;no&nbsp;Native American or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander economists.</p>



<p>Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-federal-reserve-banks-diversity-hiring/?sref=VLsP8x9g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called&nbsp;</a>diversity and inclusion “a very high priority.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>The bank&nbsp;has&nbsp;been criticized&nbsp;for not taking the unemployment rate for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-25/inflation-vs-job-market-progress-on-black-employment-risks-coming-undone" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Black workers</a>&nbsp;into account when raising rates in the past.&nbsp;Cecilia Rouse, the chair of President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-22/fed-diversity-is-improving-it-still-has-a-long-way-to-go?sref=VLsP8x9g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously</a>&nbsp;told Bloomberg News in an email that “research shows that diversity across a number of different dimensions is important for sound policy making.”&nbsp;</p></div>

After a report that the Fed was its most diverse ever, Blake Masters tweeted sarcastically that had to be why the economy was doing so well. Then he said affirmative action is the worst policy since Jim Crow for "race relations."

GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters sends sarcastic tweet about Fed diversity, affirmative action

Sign up for the <em><a href="https://mynewsletters.fortune.com/fortune-features">Fortune Features</a></em> email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.

F-Wire

Economy

Politics

GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters sends sarcastic tweet about Fed diversity, affirmative action | Fortune

Kevin Freking

Lisa Mascaro

The Associated Press

Republicans look to get Trump’s big bill back on track with rare Sunday committee session

/2025/05/18/trump-tax-cuts-congress-republicans-house-budget-committee/

Jason Ma

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread

/2025/05/18/joe-biden-aggressive-prostate-cancer-metastasis-spread-bone/

Scott Bessent says tariff uncertainty is a tactic — otherwise countries ‘would play us in the negotiations’

/2025/05/18/scott-bessent-trump-tariff-uncertainty-negotiation-tactic-trade-war-china/

Eric Tucker

Gene Johnson

Alanna Durkin Richer

The suspect in an attack on a California fertility clinic believed the world shouldn’t be populated

/article/suspect-california-fertility-clinic-attack-palm-springs-ivf-world-population/

Amanda Gerut

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un greeting children in 2024.

‘This is the mafia’ — How North Korea structures its IT workers like an organized crime syndicate

/2025/05/18/north-korean-it-workers-mafia-remote-tech-kim-jong-un-nuclear-weapons/

Azure Gilman

Major companies are anxiously awaiting to see whether or not they will be targeted by the federal government for a DEI investigation 

/article/trump-dei-deadline-investigation-companies-federal-government/

Sydney Lake

Delta CEO says air traffic control systems are so outdated that some commercial flight routes were faster in the 1950s than they are today

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/delta-ceo-air-traffic-control-1950s/?itm_source=parsely-api

Beatrice Nolan

Northeastern college student demanded her tuition fees back after catching her professor using OpenAI's ChatGPT 

https://fortune.com/2025/05/15/chatgpt-openai-northeastern-college-student-tuition-fees-back-catching-professor/?itm_source=parsely-api

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Pope Leo XIV may face a six-figure tax bill for his $33,000-a-month paycheck

https://fortune.com/2025/05/13/pope-leo-xiv-taxes-first-american-pontiff/?itm_source=parsely-api

Irina Ivanova

DOGE said 40% of the Social Security Agency’s calls were 'fraudulent.' Data suggests it was actually less than 1%

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/doge-social-security-fraud/?itm_source=parsely-api

California man who tried to evade arrest by crossing lake with an underwater scooter pleads guilty in $35 million investment fraud scheme

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/california-arrest-crossing-lake-underwater-scooter-guilty-35-million-investment-fraud-scheme/?itm_source=parsely-api

Stuart Dyos

'Doubt and hesitation' are ripping through the housing market: 'People are starting their home search, then backing out'

https://fortune.com/article/housing-market-buyers-backing-out-mortgage-prices/?itm_source=parsely-api