Andy Biggs

The Republican crusade to reclaim control of Arizona has come to a head this year amid the cul-de-sac sidewalks, manicured lawns and steepled churches of the East Valley.

Set in a suburban landscape surrounded by serrated desert peaks and stately saguaro cacti, the hubs of Gilbert and Mesa have traditionally been conservative enclaves.

In the 2026 race for governor, they have emerged as a microcosm of the ideological realignment that has reshaped Copper State politics over the past decade.

On one end of the valley is U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs: GOP primary voters’ overwhelming pick for governor.

Since 2017, he has represented Gilbert — his home for the past 40 years — as one of the most steadfast adherents to President Donald Trump’s “America First” vision.

On the other end is former Mesa mayor John Giles: Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ choice of running mate.

Leading his native city from 2014 to 2025, Giles became the face of Arizona Republicans’ small but vocal “Never Trump” movement — until he officially ditched the party.

Coming from neighboring metros, Biggs and Giles represent competing campaigns and contrasting responses to the transformation of the Republican Party.

The candidates also reflect the nuanced political identities of one particular religious community that has found itself at the center of Arizona’s fight over statewide power.

Both Biggs and Giles are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having each attended Brigham Young University after serving two-year missions in Asia.

The head-to-head matchup has filled many East Valley living rooms, featuring identical devotional artwork, with discussions on how faith should inform a person’s vote.

For Joe and Debbie Tenney, fifth-generation Arizonans whose ancestors helped to build the Mesa Temple, it is impossible to divorce elections from eternal principles.

“This battle is between, I don’t call it right and left, I call it right and wrong,” Joe Tenney said in his Gilbert home. “There’s only really one way to look at any of the given issues.”

The black-and-white of their worldview places the Tenneys firmly on team Biggs, a close personal friend who was once their bishop. Political division, the Tenneys say, is nothing less than a prophesied sign of the times: wheat being separated from the tares.

But a similar reliance on scriptural values has pushed Gilbert elementary school teacher Suzanne Lunt out of the GOP. A lifelong Republican, Lunt disaffiliated with the party due to disappointment with what she saw as its lackluster answer to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

She has taken her convictions a step further as co-chair of “Arizonans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect,” a political action committee mobilizing opposition to Biggs.

“As we’re leaving a party that is more hateful and cruel to those marginalized people, it makes me think I am being more like Jesus,” Lunt said from her house across town.

A voting bloc that has long punched above its weight, the Latter-day Saint electorate could play a pivotal role in deciding between two of their own at the top of the ticket.

While Latter-day Saints make up less than 6% of Arizona’s entire population, they have the most congregations of any denomination in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler area.

“The Church does not seek to elect government officials, support or oppose political parties, or, generally, take sides in global conflicts,” according to church policy.

Instead, Arizona’s race will give members a chance to practice what church President Dallin H. Oaks has taught about tolerating ideological diversity in difficult political environments.

Speaking as a member of the First Presidency during the April 2021 General Conference of the church, President Oaks said Latter-day Saints should strive to be “knowledgeable citizens who are active in making (their) influence felt in civic affairs.”

But this is not an easy process, he said. Members should seek “inspiration” based on their individual priorities.

“There are many political issues, and no party, platform, or individual candidate can satisfy all personal preferences,” President Oaks said. “Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time.”

The influence of Latter-day Saint voters will be magnified in a swing state where Hobbs won by just 0.3% of the vote.

Recent polls find Hobbs’ double-digit advantage falling into the margin of error, backing up her claim to be the most vulnerable incumbent Democratic governor in America.

Turning Point Action, the political operation founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has seized on the opportunity, deeming her removal their midterm priority.

Under the direction of Tyler Bowyer, who is also a Latter-day Saint, the Arizona-based group has spent $18.3 million in the past month on ads bashing Hobbs and boosting Biggs.

The stakes are high: the gubernatorial victor will influence election certification in 2028, redistricting processes in 2030 and the agenda on growth, drought and polarization.

In exclusive comments to the Deseret News, Biggs, Hobbs and Giles outlined their style of governance and opined on the source of Arizona’s red-state-turned-purple status.

They recognized the race as more than a policy debate. It is a referendum on how parties win, keep or alienate a constituency as engaged as the one east of Phoenix.

Since 2018, the GOP has lost almost every statewide office in Arizona to Democrats — ceding the governorship and both Senate seats for the first time in 70 years.

The old-guard attributes the wipeout to a party that has sacrificed electability to nominate MAGA acolytes hyperfocused on election fraud, like Kari Lake, who trailed other Republicans in her unsuccessful tries for governor in 2022 and U.S. Senate in 2024.

The base, backed by Turning Point USA, faults “Republicans in Name Only” for fielding the relatively moderate Rep. Martha McSally for Senate, who lost to Kyrsten Sinema in 2018 and Mark Kelly in 2020 despite being appointed to finish Sen. John McCain’s term.

In June, Arizona Republicans picked one of the country’s most conservative congressmen to try to reverse the trend.

For many Arizona conservatives, Biggs is the dream candidate. He has made a name for himself in Washington, D.C., as one of the most uncompromising fiscal hawks in the nation, often opposing his own party leadership on budgets and surveillance.

He has also been an unyielding ally to Trump: repeating his stolen election claims in 2020, opposing his second impeachment in 2021, endorsing his comeback bid early on in 2022 and cheering on his “no exceptions” for mass deportations in 2025.

“To say his impact has been earth-shattering is to minimize the impact he’s had on the Republican Party,” Biggs said about Trump in a Deseret News interview.

The biggest legacy of Trump may not be his populist project, according to Biggs. It will be his proclamation of America as a “city on the hill” for the world, Biggs said.

But Biggs’ takeaway from serving in federal government has largely been disillusionment toward Congress.

Biggs sat down with the Deseret News following a business roundtable in his birthplace of Tucson, about half an hour west of where he went to high school. After 10 years of attempting to reform the House, Biggs returned to Arizona with the worry that it might be irreparable.

“It’s so locked in,” he said. “Even when we thought we were making wholesale changes, most were swallowed up within 3 to 6 months, and you were back where you were.”

As chair of the rebellious House Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2022, Biggs led the charge to push his colleagues to adopt the proper appropriations process, employing brinkmanship tactics and working to oust the House speaker to rein in spending.

Efforts to change the “mechanics” and “personnel” of Congress ultimately produced little lasting fruit.

But one of Biggs’ congressional apprentices, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona’s 2nd District, said he ur