Incumbent R Congressman David Schweikert has withdrawn from his bid for reelection to Congress, and instead, will enter the R primary for governor of Arizona.
From AZMirror, written by Caitlin Sievers -
David Schweikert abandons Congress to enter Arizona governor’s race
Longtime Republican U.S. Rep. David Schweikert has dropped his congressional reelection bid to run for Arizona governor.
Schweikert, who is in his eighth term in Congress, will join U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson in the Republican primary to determine who will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the 2026 general election.
Schweikert told the Arizona Republic that he was tired of the struggle to get anything accomplished in Congress and worried that Robson couldn’t win the primary and Biggs couldn’t defeat Hobbs, who narrowly beat Republican Kari Lake to take the Governor’s Office in 2022.
To date, 16 total folks have filed statements of interest (SOI) with the AZSOS in running for the CD1 seat, 12 Ds, 4 Rs (though I expect that those figures will increase shortly). Not everyone who file an SOI will actually run - for example, Schweikert filed one for CD1 in February.
As of this writing, he hasn't filed one for governor, nor has he formed a committee for such a run.
Schweikert said that his reason for leaving Congress was the "struggle."
Betcha the real reason was that he knew he was vulnerable to challengers in both the congressional primary and general elections.
While his run for governor is something of a longshot, he's got more a chance there if Karrin Taylor Robson and Andy Biggs go after the same voters and end up canceling out each other.
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