By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — David Schweikert said Tuesday he wants to be Arizona’s next governor, shaking up what was already expected to be a contentious race among Republicans who want to try to unseat incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs.

Schweikert, who has served as a state legislator and Maricopa County treasurer before being elected to Congress in 2010, becomes a factor in what until now has been a head-to-head between fellow GOP Congressman Andy Biggs and business owner Karrin Taylor Robson.

It also makes him the only Republican who does not have the endorsement of President Trump in the party.

Schweikert, however, told Capitol Media Services he sees a path to victory despite the strength of the Make America Great Again movement, particularly given his record of being elected multiple times in a congressional district considered one of the most politically competitive in the state.

“I think if you run as the actual conservative instead of your perceived anger, I think that works,” he said. “And I actually have polling that says that works.”

Schweikert said that comes down to messaging.

“I’m with the free market,” he said.

“I believe prosperity is moral,” Schweikert continued. “Doing better in life is our mission.”

But the other half of his decision to leave Congress is based on his frustration with how things operate in Washington.

“It’s more than frustration,” he said. “I am at a point where I am livid all the time and I come home angry.”

Much of that is aimed at members of his own party who have controlled the House for all but four years since he was elected.

“I actually introduced the bills that have ‘Medicare’ in the title,” Schweikert cited as an example.

“You’re not allowed to do that,” he said. “And I can’t get a single other member to sponsor.”

Schweikert, at 63, is the parent of two adopted children, ages 9 and 3. He’s looking to spend more time closer to home.

“When you’re gone 60% of the time, and your wife, their mother, is home alone with the kids, there’s some unhappiness,” he said.

There’s another side to his decision. Schweikert said he believes he can fix the GOP in Arizona, which he said has been broken for four election cycles.

He noted Democrats won statewide races in 2022 for governor, secretary of state and attorney general, as well as for the U.S. Senate despite the fact the GOP has a voter registration edge in Arizona. The GOP also lost the race for Senate last year.

It goes back even farther, he said, to the inability of Republicans deliver the state to Donald Trump in 2020 or hang on to a Senate seat in 2018.
Schweikert contends if he heads the GOP ticket in 2026 he will draw out more Republicans than either Biggs or Robson.

Robson, in a prepared statement, said she welcomes Schweikert into the race, saying it will give voters a clear choice between “a Trump-endorsed conservative outsider who built her success in the private sector, or yet another career politician.”

Biggs responded with a survey conducted earlier this month — before Schweikert made his announcement — that shows he has the support of 48% of likely Republican voters in a three-way race, with Robson at 26% and Schweikert at 11%.

Schweikert acknowledged the numbers. But he said he doesn’t see that as significant at this point, saying he has a message he believes will resonate with voters.

“I would argue there’s a difference between populism and conservatism,” Schweikert said.

And he said his resume is more extensive than Biggs and that he has served longer in Congress than anyone currently in the Arizona delegation.

Still, Schweikert has baggage, including being found guilty of various campaign finance violations going back to 2010 including reporting a $100,000 loan that didn’t exist, failing to disclose another loan, and money spent by his chief of staff that was reimbursed by the campaign.

The House Ethics Committee accused him of providing misleading statements and being slow to produce documents, allowing the statute of limitations to expire. The panel in 2020 fined him $50,000.

Two years later the Federal Election Commission, after conducting its own probe, entered into a deal with Schweikert to pay a $125,000 fine.
Schweikert said all that “doesn’t move numbers,” as shown by his ability to get reelected since all that broke despite the issue being used by his Democratic foes.

“I think it’s partially because we were remarkably open about it,” he said, with town hall meetings.

Schweikert also may find himself out of sync with Arizonans on another issue: abortion.

By a 3-2 margin, voters in Arizona approved inserting a provision in the Arizona Constitution guaranteeing a “fundamental right to obtain an abortion.”

“I may be out of step,” Schweikert said. “But I am a classic pro-lifer.”
He said he was born in a home for unwed mothers as were his brother and sister. And then there are the two adopted children.

“I campaigned against that initiative because I think it was also presented in a dishonest fashion,” Schweikert said.

His position, however, should not hurt in the Republican primary as both Biggs and Robson also have said they oppose abortion. Where it will matter for whoever emerges from the GOP primary is in the general election against incumbent Hobbs who supported Proposition 139.

What also could be a factor in the election is money.

Schweikert declined to say how much he would need to raise to survive the primary.

“We’ve built budgets,” he said. But Schweikert said how much he will need to raise will depend on how much outside groups will spent on his behalf.

“You can’t coordinate, you can’t talk to,” he noted of these independent expenditures. “But you can actually see what their purchases are,” allowing him to tailor his own spending.

Robson, sitting on a personal fortune, has put more than $2.2 million of her own cash into the 2026 race. And that’s after spending $17 million in personal wealth in 2022 only to lose the GOP primary to Kari Lake.

Biggs, who got a later start in the 2026 gubernatorial race, reported $437,000 in the bank in July, the last campaign finance report. But he is getting a financial boost with nearly $459,000 spent on his behalf by Turning Point Action.

Schweikert said he isn’t worried, saying he has been outspent by Democrats in their efforts to oust him from Congress.

The really big money could be in the general election: Hobbs, who has been fundraising for years and continues to do so, including at out-of-state events, reporting having nearly $4.7 million cash on hand in July.

Schweikert’s decision not to seek reelection to the House in Congressional District 1 creates something that hasn’t occurred since he first got the seat in 2010. That could help Democrats who have been trying to get elected in a district that runs from north central Phoenix through Scottsdale, Cave Creek and Fountain Hills into the Tonto National Forest, a district that the Cook Political Report has shown to just barely edge Republican.

“An open seat is always an opportunity,” he said.

And who does he think should replace him?

“Some of the people I think have the ability, the intellect to do it well don’t seem interested in running,” Schweikert said. Nor, given his own experience, can he blame them.

“Congress is a battle zone,” he said. “And you’ve got to be mentally and emotionally fairly tough to deal with the absurdity that has become Congress.”