A staunch ally of United States President Donald Trump, Representative Andy Biggs, has won the Republican nomination for Arizona governor in a race to secure one of the most competitive governorships in November.
Biggs overwhelmingly defeated a fellow member of the US House of Representatives, David Schweikert, in the primary election on Tuesday and will now face Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in what could be one of the closest governor races of the midterm elections.
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Arizona, which the Republican Party once dominated, has swung back and forth between it and the Democrats in recent elections.
Former Democratic President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 while Trump retook the state in the 2024 election.
As it now stands, Democrats hold both of Arizona’s US Senate seats and the top three state offices.
The Republican primaries also set up key congressional races in the battleground state as Democrats try to unseat the Republicans as the majority in the US Congress.
By choosing Biggs – who supported Trump’s failed attempt to block certification of his 2020 election loss and was the former head of the Conservative House Freedom Caucus – Republican voters now risk nominating another conservative who excites the party base but fails to win in November by turning off independents.
Still, Biggs celebrated his win on Tuesday night with a small crowd of supporters.
“Let’s make this the year that we turn Arizona red again,” he said, referring to the colour that denotes Republican Party wins on US election maps.
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After his victory speech, Biggs rejected claims by Schweikert that he would be another Republican whom voters would judge as being too extreme.
“I am a conservative and a principled conservative, but I work with people that don’t necessarily agree with me on every issue,” Biggs told a reporter after his speech.
At the same time, Democrats were locked in a close primary contest in Arizona with former state Representative Amish Shah leading against party-backed Marlene Galan-Woods.
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