Arizona has held its primary elections, and in the closely watched race for governor, Congressman Andy Biggs, a top ally of President Trump, won the Republican nomination. The result clears the field after a crowded contest and sets up a high-stakes general election in November for one of the state's most important offices.
Biggs, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who carried the president's endorsement, will now face Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in the general election. Observers have described the matchup as potentially one of the nation's closest governor's races this year, given how competitive Arizona has become in recent statewide votes.
The outcome amounted to a strong night for the president's preferred slate of candidates. Trump largely got the candidates he wanted in Arizona's Republican primaries, with Biggs emerging from the field to claim the party's nomination and become the Republican standard-bearer in the campaign against Hobbs.
Biggs is closely tied to the president's political movement. He backed Trump's unsuccessful effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, a stance that is likely to feature prominently in the coming campaign. His nomination places that alignment with the president at the center of the race for the governor's office.
The primaries also shaped a key congressional battleground. In Arizona's first district, former NFL kicker Jay Feely, who was also backed by Trump, won the Republican primary. On the Democratic side, that district's primary had not yet been called at the time, but was being led by former state lawmaker Ami Shah as ballots continued to be counted.
The results land against a backdrop of recent Republican difficulties in Arizona's statewide contests. The movement's brand has stumbled in the state in recent years, with Kari Lake failing to win both her bid for governor and, later, a run for the U.S. Senate. Even so, Trump himself carried Arizona in the 2024 presidential election, underscoring how tightly contested the state remains.