SOUND THE ALARM: Extremist David Schweikert Joins Race for Arizona Governor
Today, Rep. David Schweikert announced that instead of running for reelection in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, he will join the messy Republican gubernatorial primary where Rep. Andy Biggs and Karrin Taylor Robson are already competing on “MAGA’s playground,” scrambling for Donald Trump’s attention — and setting himself up to lose the governor’s race.
“David Schweikert has rubber-stamped a dangerous Washington agenda that is threatening the health care, Social Security, and reproductive rights of millions. He has proven time and again he cares more about his own self-serving agenda than Arizona’s working families, and voters will see right through that as he tries to bring his extremism to the governor’s office,” said Amelia Fox, deputy director of campaign communications at EMILYs List. “Gov. Hobbs is ready to defeat any of her extremist opponents who want to drag a dangerous D.C. agenda to Arizona, because she is laser-focused on putting Arizonans first.”
Here’s how David Schweikert has spent his time in Washington:
- Slashing Medicaid to give billionaires tax breaks: Supported a reckless budget bill that will kick up to 20 million Americans off health care coverage, including an estimated 422,000 Arizonans, to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and corporations, and would add $3.4 trillion to the deficit. Schweikert gloated about sleeping through the vote and called concerns about the health care cuts “whining and bedwetting.”
- Cutting Social Security: Openly called for cutting Social Security, and backs raising the retirement age.
- Attempting to ban abortion: Co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act multiple times, which would ban abortion from the moment of conception, with no exceptions for rape and incest, and no carve-outs for IVF.
- Denying elections: Voted against certifying the 2020 election in Pennsylvania and defended Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
- Committing ethics violations: Found guilty of violating 11 ethics rules and misusing official resources, including official staff going on a lavish six-day trip to the Super Bowl.
Arizona’s gubernatorial race is consistently rated as a “toss-up” and will be one of the most competitive races in the country. Gov. Katie Hobbs has spent the last four years delivering for Arizonans, protecting access to reproductive health care, bringing good-paying jobs to the state, and turning the state into a manufacturing hub. This year alone, Gov. Hobbs has outraised the entire Republican gubernatorial field and has over $4 million in cash on hand — building a strong reelection campaign needed to win next November.
Schweikert currently represents Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, which has also been ranked as a “toss-up” by The Cook Political Report. EMILYs List has endorsed Marlene Galán-Woods, a former journalist and community leader, to flip this seat, as she is the strongest candidate in the race.
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EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country with a goal of fighting for our rights and our communities. Over 40 years, EMILYs List has raised nearly $950 million to help Democratic women win competitive elections by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running one of the most impactful independent expenditure operations for Democrats, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country’s first woman as vice president, 192 women to the House, 29 to the Senate, 20 governors, and over 1,600 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Visit www.emilyslist.org for more information.
