Analyzing Trump’s influence on GOP in primary races nationwide
President Donald Trump demonstrates an iron grip over the Republican Party’s primary races, securing victories for all his endorsed candidates in the 2026 primary season. Joe Concha notes the GOP is now the ‘MAGA party.’ Former Senator John Cornyn lost his primary to Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas, further underscoring Trump’s enduring power.
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President Donald Trump’s immense clout over the GOP and the power of his endorsements in Republican nomination races face their latest test Tuesday, as Arizona holds primary elections.
Trump’s endorsements in a handful of key races, including in a top swing congressional district, could impact the midterm battles for the House majority and control of governors’ offices.
Trump is backing Rep. Andy Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chairman, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination and the chance to challenge Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November.
Biggs, who is also backed by the political wing of the conservative powerhouse Turning Point USA, is considered the frontrunner in a race that also includes longtime Republican Rep. David Schweikert. Also on the ballot are concrete pumping contractor Scott Neely, who’s making his second straight run for governor, and business owner Ken Miceli.
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, is running for re-election this year. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The winner will face off in the general election with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, a former Arizona Secretary of State who narrowly defeated then-GOP nominee Kari Lake four years ago. Hobbs was unopposed for re-nomination.
Down-ballot, the statewide race for the Republican attorney general nomination has become combustible as state Senate President Warren Petersen and military attorney Rodney Glassman have traded fire. The winner will challenge Democratic incumbent Kris Mayes in the general election.
In the race to succeed Schweikert in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, which is anchored in the northeastern Phoenix suburbs, Trump is backing former Arizona Cardinals professional football player and former CBS Sports NFL analyst Jay Feely.
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Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who represents a key swing congressional swing district, is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Arizona. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik and businessman John Trobough are also running for the GOP nomination in the key swing district.
Former TV anchor Marlene Galán-Woods and former state Rep. Amish Shah are facing off in a rematch for the Democratic congressional nomination. Shah, an emergency room physician, won the 2024 faceoff.
Galán-Woods, a former Republican, has the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has big bucks to support her, as well as top Democrats Sen. Mark Kelly and former Gov. Janet Napolitano.
Rick McCartney, president and CEO of InMedia Company, and Jonathan Treble, founder of WithMe, are also on the ballot.
The midterm race in Arizona’s 1st District is one of two or three dozen across the country that will determine whether the GOP holds onto its razor-thin House majority.
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona is running for the 2026 Republican gubernatorial nomination (om Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In the race to replace Biggs in Arizona’s 5th District, which is located in the southeastern Phoenix suburbs, including parts of Mesa, Trump is backing former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who is facing off with construction contractor Daniel Keenan for the GOP nomination.
Keenan has made the sexual misconduct and abuse-of-power allegations against Lamb a key part of his campaign. The Pinal County attorney last month cleared Lamb of criminal wrongdoing as it closed its investigation. And Trump, despite the controversy, reaffirmed his endorsement of Lamb earlier this month.
The winner of the Republican primary will be considered the clear favorite to succeed Biggs in the solidly red district.
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries this spring and summer, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Kentucky and Texas, as well as the Louisiana primary.
The power of President Donald Trump’s endorsements in Republican nomination showdowns will be tested again on Tuesday in Arizona’s primary. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped in early June when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races in key GOP primary runoff elections in Georgia and Alabama last month, with the one setback coming against a billionaire businessman who shelled out over $100 million of his own money to boost his campaign.
A week later, Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
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Meanwhile, in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn’t lose.
That’s because, besides backing Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette a few weeks earlier, he also gave a last-minute endorsement to state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who ended up winning the late June showdown in a landslide.
The president also enjoyed victory in Louisiana, where Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, was ousted as he sought re-nomination. Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow ended up winning the nomination in last month’s runoff election.
