Andy Biggs

Trump celebrated the result on Truth Social on Wednesday, as well as the wins of several other down-ballot candidates he had endorsed in Arizona—like former NFL kicker Jay Feely, who will now face off for the First Congressional District, previously held by Republican Rep. David Schweikert. Schweikert gave up his bid for reelection in order to pursue the governor’s race and lost to Biggs on Tuesday.

“MAGA CANDIDATES WON EVERYTHING LAST NIGHT IN ARIZONA, A COMPLETE SWEEP!!! I WON ARIZONA 18 MONTHS AGO. THE DUMOCRATS ARE DUMBFOUNDED,” Trump said. “AFTER DECADES, ARIZONA IS BECOMING A REPUBLICAN STATE. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!”

A Republican stronghold from 1952-2016—with the exception of President Bill Clinton’s narrow victory in 1996—Arizona became a key battleground after President Joe Biden flipped the state by a narrow 10,000 votes in 2020. Trump won the state back in 2024, reinforcing Arizona's status as one of the nation's premier swing states. But Democrats continue to hold the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state posts, as well as both Senate seats, and they have controlled most of these offices for the past three years while the state experienced massive population growth and an expanding electorate.

The Grand Canyon State will be closely watched in the midterms—especially because Democrats see Arizona as central to their effort to retake the House. Of the 18 districts the Cook Political Report has identified as a likely “toss up” in November, two of them are in Arizona: the First and Sixth districts.

And the governor’s race is shaping up to be competitive: A May 18 poll by Noble Predictive Insights showed Hobbs leading Biggs 41% to 37%.

Hobbs has acknowledged that this race will be hard-fought. “Look, I’m not listening to the pundits. I am doing what I need to win,” she told reporters in a press conference before the primary. “We know it’s going to be close. I’m not taking a single vote for granted.”

“Let’s make this the year that we turn Arizona red again,” Biggs said in his celebration speech on Tuesday.

A longtime supporter of Trump and the MAGA movement

Biggs was chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2022, and he has been part of the MAGA movement since Trump’s first term. He became a close ally to the President and openly questioned the legitimacy of the election in 2020. Trump has long denied his loss to Biden, though his claims have been repeatedly debunked.

After Biggs was elected to the House in 2016, he was often embroiled in Republican infighting: playing a prominent role in efforts to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and publicly rebelling against current Speaker Mike Johnson. Biggs penned an op-ed in the Washington Times in 2024, calling Johnson’s foreign aid bill a “disaster.”