Rep. Andy Biggs captured the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona on Tuesday, according to projections from major news organizations, positioning the longtime conservative firebrand for a November showdown against Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in one of the country’s most closely watched battleground states.
The Associated Press and other outlets called the race for Biggs almost immediately after polls closed. According to KTAR News, the AP declared him the winner Tuesday evening as early returns showed Biggs with 70.4 percent of the vote compared with 17.2 percent for Rep. David Schweikert, with roughly 43 percent of the estimated vote counted. Fox News reported that contractor Scott Neely, who was making his second consecutive run for governor, drew about 7 percent, while business owner Ken Miceli took roughly 5.4 percent when the race was called.
An affirmation of Trump’s grip on the GOP
Biggs, a former chair of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus who has represented a district southeast of Phoenix since 2017, built his campaign around President Donald Trump’s endorsement. CNN’s Decision Desk projected the win, describing it as an affirmation of the president’s continued hold on Republican politics following what the network characterized as an uneven run of presidential endorsements this cycle.
The endorsement had not always been so clear-cut. Trump initially backed businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson when she entered the race, then added a second endorsement of Biggs in April 2025, scrambling the primary’s political math. Taylor Robson later exited the contest, saying a divisive primary would drain resources and devolve into months of intraparty attacks. Biggs also carried the backing of the conservative youth group Turning Point Action.
“I am deeply honored to be chosen by Arizona Republicans as their nominee to defeat Katie Hobbs in November,” Biggs said in a statement reported by the Arizona Mirror, adding that his campaign had been driven by grassroots supporters since its launch in January 2025.
A vulnerable incumbent in a purple state
Hobbs, a former Arizona secretary of state, ran unopposed in the Democratic primary as she seeks a second four-year term. She enters the general election as one of the cycle’s most vulnerable governors: NBC News noted that she won her 2022 election by less than a single percentage point, narrowly defeating then-Republican nominee Kari Lake. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the contest as one of three gubernatorial toss-ups for 2026, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin, according to the Washington Examiner.
Arizona’s shifting politics complicate the picture for both parties. NBC News reported that the state is one of five Trump carried in 2024 where a Democratic-held governorship is on the ballot in 2026, but that Democrats have found recent success running against Trump-aligned candidates in what was once a Republican stronghold. The state currently has two Democratic U.S. senators and Democratic officeholders in the secretary of state and attorney general offices.
The Hobbs campaign moved quickly to define Biggs, telling the Arizona Mirror in a social media post that he has “spent his career selling out Arizona families for billionaires, special interests, and even convicted sex offenders,” and predicting voters would come to see him as “one big problem they can’t afford.”
Biggs, for his part, has sought to broaden his appeal to Arizona’s large bloc of independent voters. NBC News reported that in the primary’s final stretch he cast himself as someone willing to work across the aisle, and that he sidestepped questions in a recent interview about the 2020 election, whose outcome he had long questioned, saying Republicans would win “by looking forward and having a vision for the state.”
Ripple effects down the ballot
Biggs’s decision to leave the House opened his solidly Republican 5th Congressional District. Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb won the GOP primary to replace him, taking 58.7 percent of the vote, while Elizabeth Lee won the Democratic primary with 64.4 percent, according to KTAR News citing the AP. CBS News reported that Lamb prevailed despite misconduct allegations that surfaced late in the race, aided by name recognition and Trump’s endorsement. The seat, which covers much of the East Valley and parts of Pinal County, is expected to favor Republicans in November.
The outcome of the governor’s race carries stakes well beyond the executive branch. Republicans, who already control the state legislature, are hoping a Biggs victory would deliver unified GOP control of the Arizona Capitol. National Republicans cheered the result: The Hill reported that Republican Governors Association chair Greg Gianforte framed Biggs as a candidate who would put Arizona families first, though the same report noted that flipping the office will be an uphill climb in a midterm environment widely expected to favor Democrats.
The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3.
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