Trump-backed ex-NFL kicker wins Arizona House primary, signaling GOP’s hard-right shift
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Arizona’s Republican primaries saw a former NFL kicker, endorsed by Donald Trump, secure a House nomination, as other far-right, Trump-aligned candidates won key races for governor and the state’s top election office.
Republican primaries in Arizona on Tuesday underscored the GOP’s ongoing capitulation to Donald Trump’s extremist agenda, as several candidates favored by the former president emerged victorious. Jay Feely, a former NFL placekicker who eagerly sought Trump’s endorsement, clinched the Republican nomination in a fiercely contested House district covering parts of Scottsdale and Phoenix. Feely cited the 2024 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, as the driving force behind his campaign, further fueling the party’s culture of grievance and victimhood. The primaries also elevated a hard-line Trump loyalist as the GOP nominee for governor and handed the nomination for the state’s top election official to an unabashed election-denier, threatening the integrity of Arizona’s democratic institutions. Meanwhile, Democratic voters chose a moderate incumbent over a progressive challenger, reflecting the party’s reluctance to embrace bold change, while one major Democratic primary remained undecided late Tuesday night.