Congressman Andy Biggs won the Republican nomination for Arizona governor in the state's July 21, 2026 primary. He beat fellow Representative David Schweikert and two businessmen. Next, he will face the current Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, in the November election (The Guardian; Reuters).

Biggs was endorsed by Donald Trump. He used to lead the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most conservative Republicans in Congress. He also played a key role in trying to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss. His win over Schweikert — an eight-term congressman who gave up his seat in the House to run for governor — puts a politician closely tied to claims that the 2020 election was stolen at the top of the Republican ticket in one of the country's tightest swing states. A swing state is a state where both parties have a real chance of winning (The Guardian).

Businessmen Ken Miceli and Scott Neely also ran in the Republican primary. Neely had run for Arizona governor before, in 2022, and lost. The four candidates held a debate ahead of the July primary (AP News). Biggs will now challenge Hobbs in the November 3, 2026 general election. Early voting starts October 7, and the deadline to register to vote is the same day at 11:59 p.m. (Arizona Secretary of State).

Hobbs won the governor's office for the Democrats in 2022. No one ran against her in the Democratic primary this time. Her 2022 win was part of a larger trend: since 2016, Democrats in Arizona have taken control of the governorship, the attorney general's office, the secretary of state's office, and both U.S. Senate seats. That shift happened even as Trump narrowly won Arizona in the 2024 presidential election, after losing it in 2020 (The Guardian).

Schweikert's choice to leave his congressional seat — Arizona's 1st District, which he won in 2024 with about 52% of the vote — created an opening both parties want to fill. Several Republicans are running for it, including former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik, former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely, and technology executive John Trobough. On the Democratic side, former state lawmaker Amish Shah is running again. He is joined by Marlene Galán-Woods, a former local news anchor and the widow of Grant Woods. Grant Woods was Arizona's attorney general as a Republican before leaving the party over Trump (The Guardian).

The broader context here is that Arizona's politics have been shifting for about a decade. Democrats have slowly built strength in offices across the state that used to belong to Republicans. But Trump's narrow win there in 2024 shows that the Democratic edge is not guaranteed to last. The race between Biggs and Hobbs will test a key question: can a Republican closely aligned with Trump and his effort to overturn the 2020 election win a statewide contest in Arizona? Or does the party keep picking primary candidates who are too conservative to win in November?

Schweikert's decision adds another layer. By leaving a district he won by only about three points, he created an open race that both parties will treat as a top priority. Shah came within four points of winning in 2024, which shows the Democratic candidate there has a strong base of support. Galán-Woods's candidacy brings a personal history into the race: her late husband left the Republican Party over Trump, a split that mirrors the larger changes in Arizona politics.

For Biggs, winning the primary was the easier step. Arizona's general elections have not been kind to candidates seen as too extreme. Hobbs won in 2022 against Republican nominee Kari Lake, whose campaign focused on denying the results of the 2020 election. The parallels to 2026 are clear. Biggs has the same Trump endorsement, the same connection to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and the same political profile. The central question is whether that profile energizes Republican voters or pushes away the independents who tend to decide elections in Arizona.