Jay Feely Wins Arizona GOP Primary for Schweikert's Old Seat, Sets Up Fall Battle With Amish Shah

Jay Feely, the former NFL kicker turned Republican candidate, won the GOP primary for Arizona's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday. The Associated Press projected Feely the winner with 49.4% of the vote, according to ground.news.

He beat state Rep. Joseph Chaplik and technology consultant John Trobough in a three-way primary. President Trump had thrown his full weight behind Feely, calling him a "true America First conservative" in a video endorsement released days before the vote, according to Fox News.

The seat opened up because Rep. David Schweikert, who has held it, is running for governor instead of seeking reelection. Schweikert lost his own gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, per Fox News.

Arizona's 1st District covers northeastern Maricopa County, including chunks of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Fountain Hills. Both parties consider it one of the most competitive House races in the country this cycle. The New York Post reported that the seat is one Democrats have long hoped to flip back after losing it.

Feely now moves to a November matchup that looks likely to be against former Democratic state lawmaker Amish Shah, who was leading the Democratic field as of Tuesday night, according to ground.news.

A brutal final stretch

The GOP primary turned personal in its closing weeks. Chaplik accused Feely on X of having "imported Haitians," a post Feely called racist, saying it targeted Haitian men he considers family, according to Axios Phoenix as cited by Fox News.

Chaplik didn't back down. "This tweet had NOTHING to do with your two family members and everything to do with your history of bringing large numbers of Haitian migrants to NGOs in an attempt to get amnesty here," Chaplik wrote on X, adding that Feely has a "history of opposing Trump on TPS for Haiti."

Feely has spent years doing nonprofit relief work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake there and has defended that work as humanitarian, not political, according to Fox News.

The primary also featured criticism of Feely's residency. Ground.news noted Feely faced questions during the campaign over living outside the district, an issue that has dogged other high-profile candidates in Arizona races before.

Trump's grip on the ballot

Feely's win is the latest data point in what Fox News commentator Joe Concha describes as Trump's iron grip over 2026 GOP primaries, with every Trump-endorsed candidate so far winning. That includes Ken Paxton's defeat of former Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas primary.

The New York Post's coverage framed Tuesday's Arizona results as a clean sweep for Trump-backed candidates statewide, while also noting a Democratic socialist House candidate lost badly in a separate race. That framing plays up the GOP's internal cohesion but says less about how Feely's contested Haiti comments and residency questions could be used against him by Democrats in the general election, a wrinkle that got more attention in local Arizona coverage like Axios Phoenix than in some national write-ups.

Feely brings name recognition from his 14-year NFL career, which included stints as a kicker for the Arizona Cardinals, the New York Giants and the New York Jets. He also served on the Gilbert Christian High School board from 2016 to 2020, according to ground.news.

The 1st District is a genuine toss-up, and Republicans and Democrats both view it as a race that could help decide House control. Feely will need to unify a primary electorate split three ways, while managing the residency and Haiti-related attacks that Chaplik's campaign put into circulation.

Shah, if he clinches the Democratic nomination, will run as a former state lawmaker trying to flip a seat Democrats have targeted for cycles. Neither the Feely nor Shah campaigns had released detailed general-election messaging as of Tuesday night, according to available reporting.

Heading into the fall, a key question is whether the primary-season attacks on Feely's Haiti relief work and residency status resurface as general-election ammunition, and whether Trump's endorsement carries the same weight in a competitive general as it did in a three-way GOP primary.