Rep. Andy Biggs sailed to the Republican nomination for Arizona governor July 21, further solidifying President Donald Trump's nearly perfect record in the 2026 GOP primaries.

Now comes the more difficult task for the five-term conservative firebrand in his quest to defeat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs: winning over needed independents without straying too far from the White House.

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.. some of Biggs' fellow Republicans cast the former House Freedom Caucus chair as too extreme to prevail over Hobbs.

The governor's race had been rated as a "toss-up" by experts, but it's been tilted more in Hobbs' favor given Biggs' polarizing views, including his skepticism President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.

If the GOP wants to holds its slim House majority, that will mean defending many battleground seats and three in Arizona are being targeted by Democrats. Chief among them being Arizona's 1st congressional district election to replace Republican David Schweikert, who lost the gubernatorial primary Tuesday to Biggs.

Trump won that district -- covering northeastern Maricopa County -- by three percentage points in 2024, but Biden won it by one and half points in 2020.

The president's choice is Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL Pro Bowl kicker seeking to capitalize on his name ID that helped him defeat former state Rep. Joe Chaplik and businessman John Trobough.

Democrats are choosing between former state legislator Amish Shah and Marlene Galán-Woods, a former TV news anchor endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrat's political arm. But with about 76% of precincts, Shah is leading Galan-Woods by roughly 10 percentage points.

The DCCC also lists Arizona's 6th Congressional District as a possible flip, where it hopes to unseat Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, whose district Trump carried by less than one percentage point in 2024. JoAnna Mendoza, a Marine Corps veteran, ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for that seat.

Arizona's 2nd District, currently represented by Republican Rep. Eli Crane, is also a Democratic target. Experts are less optimistic about their chances there, given Trump won the area by 15 percentage points two years ago. But political observers point out Democrat Jonathan Nez, a former Navajo Nation president, did outperform former Vice President Kamala Harris in the district.

It is also noteworthy that amid a rising tide of more progressive Democrats defeating longtime incumbents, four-term Rep. Greg Stanton trounced activist Kai Newkirk, who leaned into opposing data centers drawing the ire from big-money AI groups.