Andy Biggs and David Schweikert offer competing visions for Republican Party in Arizona primary
PHOENIX (AP) — As head of conservatives Freedom Group In the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Andy Biggs was one of the Republican Party’s fiercest brawlers in Washington, championing President Donald Trump’s agenda while frustrating establishment leaders.
U.S. Representative David Schweikert said these uncompromising tactics lose the recipe And in Arizona, Republicans saw their power wane as voters rejected candidates seen as too extreme.
Biggs and Schweikert, who have coexisted in the fractious Arizona Republican Party for decades, are on a collision course in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary. The race has become a clash of competing visions to revitalize the once-dominant GOP and take on the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs.
Biggs, approved by Trump He is backed by Turning Point Action and has built his political career as a skilled Republican infighter, but has never faced a tough campaign against a Democrat. Meanwhile, Schweikert is trying to revive an increasingly anachronistic version of the party.
“Biggs lives in a district where if he were a turtle running as a Republican, you’d win him,” said Kathleen Dunbar, 75, a former member of the Tucson City Council who plans to vote for Schweikert on Election Day. “Schweikert lives in a district very similar to the state of Arizona where he needs to win independents. And he’s done that eight times in the last 16 years.”
Republicans struggle in Arizona
Biggs’ greatest asset is his alliance with Trump. But Trump’s support in Arizona is a double-edged sword.
No Republican lost a statewide primary here with Trump’s support. But since 2018, only one of them, former Gov. Doug Ducey, has managed to win a statewide general election. As a result, in a state where registered Democrats are outnumbered by both Republicans and independents, the Democratic Party holds both Senate seats and the top three statehouses.
In 2022, a slate of Trump-backed Republicans led by former local news anchor Kari Lake, the party’s nominee for governor, refused to soften their message in the general election, convinced that their fired-up MAGA base would carry them to victory. They lost.
Biggs refuses to be compared to Lake and sands down the edges of his uncompromising personality.
Biggs is now refusing to say whether Biden’s victory was legitimate after supporting Trump’s effort to block the 2020 election certification. He also describes examples of working in the hallway.
Biggs voter Kathy Babits, 71, a retired occupational therapist from Scottsdale, said she was unimpressed by Schweikert’s warning that Biggs was too toxic for the general electorate.
“As long as people get behind it and things don’t change too much, I’m all for it,” Babits said.
Primary reflects changing Republican Party
Biggs and Schweikert are fiscal conservatives from neighboring districts in the Phoenix suburb of the East Valley, two of the whitest and wealthiest counties in Arizona.
But they are completely different in style.
Biggs boasts that he has a direct line to Trump. He built a national profile as a bulwark against compromise with Democrats in the House; He played a key role in toppling Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy and participating in an unsuccessful rebellion against his successor, Mike Johnson.
He took tough and sometimes lonely stances against government spending. He was one of a handful of House members to vote against economic stimulus early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a state legislator he even proposed eliminating the state’s Medicaid program.
It has thrived in the younger, fast-growing, family-oriented suburbs on the sprawling fringes of metro Phoenix.
“I like his style, his policies, his demeanor,” said Biggs supporter Don Dobie of Scottsdale. “And he seems like a trustworthy man.”
By the way, Schweikert was not photographed with Trump. Although he has been a reliable supporter of Trump’s priorities and has refrained from criticizing him publicly, he has sought to cultivate a public image as a budget thief obsessed with the federal budget deficit.
He persisted among the genteel country club in one of the nation’s most highly educated congressional districts. He managed to retain his seat in the House even as many of his district’s wealthy, highly educated Republicans abandoned the party under Trump.
Schweikert needs voters like Jeff Clark, a retired telecommunications engineer from Scottsdale, who fears his party will embrace Trump.
“Once they say they sponsored Trump or something, I’m sorry, that’s not going to work,” Clark said.
However, Clark did not enter the governor’s race and refused to vote for anyone because he believed Biggs was locked in the nomination and did not see Schweikert “doing much for anyone” in Congress.
Michael LoBello, a 79-year-old retiree from Scottsdale, said Republicans are struggling in Arizona because they aren’t aggressive enough in pushing Trump’s priorities (like the SAVE America election bill). He voted for Biggs.
“Stand up for the people,” LoBello said. “Stand up for us. They forget who they represent, and that’s the people.”
Crowded primary for battleground House district
Both parties competed fiercely in primaries for Schweikert’s House district, a key battleground in the fight for the congressional majority.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee controversially backed Marlene Galán-Woods, a former television news anchor turned Republican. Her late husband, Grant Woods, was the Republican attorney general in the 1990s and later became an open critic of Trump.
Woods’ chief rival, Amish Shah, is an emergency physician and former state legislator who was the party’s nominee in 2024 but narrowly lost to Schweikert.
“I like his background in the medical field,” said Jeff Cohen, a 69-year-old Cave Creek attorney who voted for Shah. “And he actually showed up at my door and I met him. That made a difference. Old-school politics.”
On the Republican side, former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely has Trump’s support. He faces criticism for living outside the region; Biggs lives in his district and was running there until Trump endorsed an opponent.
Feely faces former state legislator Joseph Chaplik and businessman John Trobough, who are popular with many of the party’s grassroots activists.
