▶ Watch Video: Key Arizona primary races to watch
Arizona voters headed to the polls Tuesday to choose who will take on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, and key congressional districts are also holding primaries as the heated battle to control the House continues.
Arizona has traditionally been a heavily Republican state, and six of its nine House representatives are Republicans. But the state currently has a Democratic governor, and both U.S. senators are Democrats. The state voted for former President Joe Biden in 2020, but flipped back in 2024 for President Trump.
After the 2020 election, Arizona was one of the states Mr. Trump targeted for his baseless claims of voter fraud — and those claims have continued to reverberate throughout Arizona’s politics.
Here are the races to watch:
Arizona Republican primary for governor
Hobbs is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination, and there are four Republicans on the ballot to take her on in November. The two leading candidates are Reps. Andy Biggs and David Schweikert, and Biggs has the president’s endorsement.
Biggs is leading in early polls, and Francisco Pedraza, the head of Arizona State University’s Center for Latina/os and American Politics Research, told CBS News that he could see a Biggs-Hobbs matchup as a “tight race.”
In 2022, Hobbs narrowly defeated Trump ally Kari Lake in the governor’s race. Lake, who backed Mr. Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, has since been tapped by the president to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and other services like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Senate has not yet voted to confirm her nomination.
Biggs has represented Arizona’s 5th District for five terms and is the former chair of the House Freedom Caucus. Biggs, who has been one of the top proponents of Mr. Trump’s election fraud claims, was subpoenaed by the now-defunct Jan. 6 select committee over his alleged involvement in plans to bring protesters to Washington on that day, as well as his efforts to convince state officials that the 2020 election had been stolen from Mr. Trump. His name appeared frequently in the final report.
Pedraza said the 2020 election claims and “whether we can trust our election systems” will be a central theme in the race, though Hobbs has been focusing on affordability and curbing school vouchers. He cited ASU’s research on the 2024 election that found that one in three Arizona voters are “not that confident” or “not at all confident” that absentee or mail-in ballots will be fairly counted and free of fraud.
“That is some evidence that when thought leaders — and especially elected officials, public officials, including the president of the United States — when they continue to bang on this drum that there’s fraud happening despite no evidence that that is the case, it sticks, and so people’s beliefs are really tainted,” he said.
Arizona 1st Congressional District
Schweikert was first elected to Congress in 2010 as part of the Tea Party wave to represent the Scottsdale area, but he told the Arizona Republic last year that he wanted to run for governor because he was frustrated with gridlock in Congress. “We have a body that can’t even pass its appropriation bills,” he said.
Schweikert won by only 3.8 points in 2024 over former state legislator Amish Shah, and the district is ranked as a toss-up by Sabato’s Crystal Ball rankings by the UVA Center for Politics. Several Republicans are vying for the GOP nomination, including former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik, former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely and businessman John Trobough. Mr. Trump has backed Feely.
On the Democratic side, several candidates are seeking the nomination, including Shah and Marlene Galán-Woods, who was defeated by Shah in the 2024 primary. The Democrats’ House campaign arm is backing Galán-Woods, a former broadcast journalist.
Galán-Woods has been criticized for being a Republican until 2018 and supporting GOP politicians in the past. She told the Arizona Republic that the party has changed: “The Republican Party has been driven off a cliff by Donald Trump and people like (incumbent U.S. Rep.) David Schweikert.”
Arizona 5th Congressional District
With Biggs’ entry into the governor’s race, his congressional seat is left open in the safe Republican district.
Mr. Trump has backed former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who has branded himself “America’s Sheriff” and told the Arizona Republic when he launched his campaign he was focused on “faith in God, Jesus Christ, my family.” Lamb led early in the race, but the Arizona Republic published a multi-part investigation in May alleging that Lamb engaged for years in sexual misconduct, explicit messages and abuse of power, and was investigated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
CBS News has reached out to Lamb’s campaign.
Lamb’s campaign has denied allegations of misconduct. In a Facebook post in May, Lamb’s wife said “after all we’ve been through, a massive smear campaign is certainly not going to stop us from doing what’s right.”
Last week, Mr. Trump reaffirmed his support for Lamb, who is being challenged by wealthy construction owner Daniel Keenan. Keenan has poured in $1.6 million of his own money into his campaign, and a poll by a GOP polling firm and backed by his campaign recently showed him with a slim lead.
Biggs won by over 20 points in 2024, and the district is ranked Safe Republican by UVA’s Sabato’s Crystal Ball, so Tuesday’s winner will likely be favored to win in November.
There are three Democrats running to take on the winner of the Republican primary.
