Republican Rep. David Schweikert is running for governor for Arizona, opening up a battleground House district in the Phoenix suburbs.
In an interview with the Arizona Republic, Schweikert said he’s grown weary of dysfunction in Washington and he’d have a greater opportunity to improve government efficiency at the state level.
“In Arizona, I think you have the chance to actually bring in the changes, the technology, the modernization that would give us another decade of wage growth, some real prosperity. I’m very concerned about some of the data I’ve seen in Arizona that we’re losing our edge,” he told the newspaper.
Schweikert is expected to officially announce his campaign to challenge Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs on Oct. 1, according to Axios Phoenix.
The eight-term lawmaker is the second member of Arizona’s congressional delegation to seek the governorship, joining Rep. Andy Biggs in a GOP primary that also includes Karrin Taylor Robson, a former member of the state Board of Regents who’s making her second gubernatorial bid.
Both Robson and Biggs have already landed endorsements from President Donald Trump ahead of next year’s Aug. 4 primary.
Schweikert is also the second House Republican to leave a swing seat to run for governor after Michigan’s John James. Other vulnerable Republicans, such as Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Zach Nunn of Iowa, opted to seek reelection after Trump signaled for them to stay put, given the GOP’s narrow hold on the chamber.
Schweikert was first elected to the House in 2010, unseating Democrat Harry Mitchell in his third attempt at Congress. Before that, he served in the Arizona House and as chair of the State Board of Equalization and as Maricopa County treasurer.
Schweikert has faced competitive reelection races in recent years amid shifting politics in Maricopa County. He won an eighth term last fall in Arizona’s 1st District by 4 points, the fourth straight cycle in which he was reelected by single digits. Trump carried the seat, centered in Scottsdale, by 3 points, according to calculations by The Downballot.
Schweikert, a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, has courted controversy over his House tenure. He was the subject of a two-year ethics probe that ended in July 2020 when the Ethics Committee recommended he be reprimanded for the misuse of office resources, violations of campaign finance reporting requirements and several other violations of federal law and House rules. He agreed to pay a $50,000 fine and was formally reprimanded on the chamber floor.
“David Schweikert’s entrance into the Arizona governor’s race confirms that the GOP primary is only going to be even nastier, more extreme, and more expensive,” Sam Newton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement. “Whether it’s Karrin Taylor Robson, Andy Biggs, or David Schweikert, the entire field of GOP candidates share the same extreme agenda that would make life worse for Arizonans.”
Running for governor is also appealing to Schweikert because it would allow him to stay closer to his young family, he told the Arizona Republic. The 63-year-old lawmaker and his wife, Joyce Schweikert, are the parents of two adopted children, ages 3 and 9. “My 9-year-old is just giddy that when daddy flies back from D.C., we’ll be getting in the truck and going and doing road trips,” said the congressman, an adoptee himself.
Republicans expressed confidence that they would hold Schweikert’s 1st District seat, pointing to the party’s voter registration edge in the district.
“Republicans will field a strong candidate to defeat whichever liberal emerges from Democrats’ 7-way primary,” Ben Petersen, director of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s war room, said in a statement. “Voters in this district are shifting rightward and reject Democrats’ tax-raising, open borders agenda.”
The Democratic primary for the 1st District has already drawn a crowded field. Candidates include former state Rep. Amish Shah, the 2024 nominee, and former television journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, who lost to Shah in last year’s primary. Civil rights attorney Mark Robert Gordon, nonprofit leader Rick McCartney and business owner Jonathan Treble are also in the race.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the contest Tilt Republican.
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