Shah wins Arizona Democratic primary for key House seat

Democrat Amish Shah won the primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, setting up a closely watched general election matchup with Republican Jay Feely in one of the nation’s most competitive House races.

The Associated Press and NBC News projected Shah’s victory Tuesday over Marlene Galán-Woods, a former broadcast journalist who had support from Democratic leaders in Arizona and Washington, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Shah, a physician and former state lawmaker, was the party’s nominee in 2024, when he lost to Republican Rep. David Schweikert by nearly 4 percentage points.

The result marks another setback for the DCCC in a competitive Democratic primary. Its preferred candidates also lost this election cycle in Maine’s 2nd District and California’s 22nd District.

Arizona’s 1st District covers Scottsdale and areas northeast of the city. Schweikert, an eight-term Republican, chose not to seek reelection to the House seat and instead ran for governor. He lost Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary to Rep. Andy Biggs. Schweikert has represented the current 1st District since 2023 and previously served in Arizona’s 5th and 6th districts.

Galán-Woods was married to the late Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general who left the Republican Party over President Donald Trump. She and Shah also ran against each other in 2024, when Galán-Woods finished third in the Democratic primary. Last month, she signed a pledge rebuking the Democratic Party’s left wing after several primary victories by democratic socialists, underscoring internal divisions over the party’s direction.

The Democratic primary drew millions of dollars in outside spending in its final weeks. Ads attacked Shah over his voting record in the state Legislature and accused him of aligning with conservatives on high-profile social issues. The DCCC also spent on ads supporting Galán-Woods and highlighting her endorsement from Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

Shah pushed back against the attacks, saying “dark money groups are attacking me, trying to scam [voters] with deliberate disinformation” about his record. He also criticized national Democrats for intervening in the race, calling them a “broken cabal” in an interview with The New York Times.

Shah’s campaign has emphasized his legislative record, arguing he opposed Republicans and the Trump administration in Arizona and would do the same in Washington. He also campaigned on health care and abortion access, drawing on his work as an emergency room doctor.

Feely, a former NFL kicker and CBS Sports analyst, won the Republican primary after defeating former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik, a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus who resigned from the Legislature to focus on the congressional race. Feely initially ran in Arizona’s 5th District, but Trump endorsed one of his opponents there and urged him to run in a different district or seek another office.

Trump later issued a double endorsement in the 1st District primary, backing Feely and Gina Swoboda, the former Arizona Republican Party chairwoman. Swoboda dropped out to run for Arizona secretary of state, and Trump issued another endorsement of Feely earlier this month.

“This seat is such an important seat,” Feely said at an election night event. “You know how close the House is, and there’s three to five seats in the country that will determine who holds the House and who controls the House in November. This is one of those seats.”

NBC News reported that Trump carried the district by 3 points in 2024.

In other Arizona House races Tuesday, Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani advanced toward a general election matchup in the 6th District against Democrat JoAnna Mendoza, a Marine veteran who later worked as a congressional and political aide. In the 2nd District, Democrats nominated former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez for a rematch against Republican Rep. Eli Crane, who beat Nez by 9 points two years ago. NBC News reported that Trump won that district by 15 points in 2024.

In the 5th District, former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, another Trump-endorsed candidate, won the Republican primary for Biggs’ open seat. NBC News reported that Lamb will be heavily favored in the suburban Phoenix district, which Trump won by 20 points in 2024. Lamb faced criticism after an Arizona Republican investigation found that his church investigated allegations of sexual impropriety against him. Lamb denies the allegations, and the Pinal County attorney’s office closed an investigation after finding “no abuse of power or criminal violation.”