{"id":953711,"date":"2026-07-23T09:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953711\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T09:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:42:19","slug":"amish-shah-wins-democratic-nod-in-arizonas-1st-congressional-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953711\/","title":{"rendered":"Amish Shah wins Democratic nod in Arizona\u2019s 1st Congressional District"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Amish Shah<\/a> won the Democratic primary Wednesday in a hotly contested congressional district in Arizona, delivering another defeat to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backed a rival, as more voters reject the preferences of party leaders in Washington. <\/p>\n

Shah, an emergency physician, will face Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by President Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team \u2014 the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker. <\/p>\n

The DCCC backed Marlene Gal\u00e1n-Woods<\/a>, a former Republican who switched parties at the beginning of Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

The competition for the 1st Congressional District<\/a>, an affluent area that includes northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley, is expected to help determine control of the U.S. House. Although Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, the district has shifted toward the center over the last decade. <\/p>\n

The seat is open because Republican Rep. David Schweikert<\/a> ran for governor, losing to Rep. Andy Biggs in the GOP primary<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The DCCC\u2019s decision to endorse Gal\u00e1n-Woods, a former television journalist in Phoenix, puzzled local Democrats because there was little ideological difference between her and Shah. Both are moderates, and the race was not a proxy fight in the party\u2019s deepening feud between progressives and centrists.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur victory in this primary was a grassroots victory where Arizona voters made their voices heard,\u201d Shah said Wednesday night in a statement that did not address the DCCC snub. \u201cNow, it\u2019s my job to earn the support of every voter in this district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Suzan DeBene, the DCCC Chair, issued a statement calling Feely an \u201cextremist\u201d and saying Shah \u201cwill always put his community first,\u201d but did not address the controversy surrounding the support for Gal\u00e1n-Woods. <\/p>\n

The National Republican Congressional Committee quickly released a digital ad Wednesday attacking Shah, labeling him a socialist and tying him to progressives in Congress. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a political outsider committed to delivering results,\u201d Feely said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The race was in some ways a replay of 2024, when Shah narrowly won in a crowded primary field that included Gal\u00e1n-Woods and lost in the general election. The DCCC did not endorse in the primary that year but backed Shah in the general. <\/p>\n

The DCCC announced its support for Gal\u00e1n-Woods in May, when it added her to a list of candidates its supporting in Republican-controlled districts. At the time, DelBene talked up Gal\u00e1n-Woods experience in broadcast journalism but said nothing about Shah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t exactly my party\u2019s pick,\u201d Shah told supporters Tuesday night. \u201cAnd I was willing to stand up to that establishment. And that\u2019s what the voters of this district want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he has said he would work with the DCCC if nominated. He will need support from the party and its donors to win what\u2019s likely to be a tough race in a district Trump carried narrowly in 2024. Former Democratic President Joe Biden won the district in 2020 even as Schweikert was reelected. <\/p>\n

Antiestablishment fervor has spooked congressional leaders, who fear that swing voters will see some insurgent candidates as too extreme and squander Democrats\u2019 opportunity to take advantage of Trump\u2019s unpopularity<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Last month progressive Randy Villegas beat a DCCC-backed candidate for a top battleground district in California\u2019s Central Valley. And similarly in Maine, Matt Dunlap defeated a more moderate rival backed by the party.<\/p>\n

DCCC support generally brings an influx of money and staffing, both from the party itself and from the donors and interest groups that take its cues. But establishment support has been a turnoff for some voters. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party needs to grow up and wake up,\u201d said Maria Liong, a 24-year-old medical student who volunteered for Shah\u2019s campaign. \u201cThey need to realize that they want candidates who listen to their people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the GOP primary, Feely defeated Joseph Chaplik, a former state lawmaker popular with grassroots activists, for the party\u2019s nomination. He was in the NFL with seven teams over 14 seasons, including with the Arizona Cardinals from 2010 to 2013. He became an NFL broadcaster after retiring in 2014.<\/p>\n

Feely and Shah overlapped on the Jets during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, when Shah worked home games as an airway management physician, according to his campaign. Every NFL game has an airway management doctor on the sideline to intubate and resuscitate a catastrophically injured player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an old relationship,\u201d Feely said of Shah on Tuesday night, before it was clear which Democrat he would face in November. \u201cBut whoever it is, I want to do this the right way. I want to run this the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud and Wufei Yu contributed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Amish Shah won the Democratic primary Wednesday in a hotly contested congressional district in Arizona,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":953712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7373,7249,5643,11029,49462,69,90,1318,57,2055,51,118637,383776,82,316061,15170,383780,383777,383778,50,9341,80,326754,383779,52,89,61,322,93],"class_list":["post-953711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2026-elections","tag-andy-biggs","tag-arizona","tag-az-state-wire","tag-david-schweikert","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-football","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-headlines","tag-house-elections","tag-jay-feely","tag-joe-biden","tag-joseph-chaplik","tag-liberalism","tag-maria-liong","tag-marlene-galn-woods","tag-matthew-dunlap","tag-news","tag-nfl-football","tag-politics","tag-randy-villegas","tag-suzan-debene","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116968643578993039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}