Democrats to spend big money to boot David Schweikert from Congress

Republican Rep. David Schweikert has represented Scottsdale and North Phoenix in Congress for 14 years, weathering a campaign finance scandal and watching his district become increasingly liberal.

Now, two weeks after former state Rep. Amish Shah won the Democratic primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, Democrats in Congress are positioning themselves to pounce on Schweikert.

Thursday morning, the official campaign arm of House Democrats — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — announced that it added Shah to its “Red to Blue” program and will provide his campaign major assistance in an effort to finally boot Schweikert from office. That means more organizational, staffing and fundraising support for Shah, according to DCCC spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen.

Fanguen herself is part of that extra help. She became the Shah campaign’s media contact after he won a six-way race in the primary last month.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, a centrist Democrat who represents the suburbs of Seattle, Washington, and chairs the committee, said in a written statement that Shah will protect abortion rights and advocate for working families.

“Shah is the experienced and trusted advocate that Arizonans deserve,” DelBene said.

An emergency physician, Shah is a former state lawmaker who won three elections between 2018 and 2022 in the district he’s now running to represent. Shah resigned in February 2024 to focus on running for Congress. His campaign website says he is “committed to lowering healthcare costs and standing up to Big Pharma to end the price gouging of essential medications like insulin.”

There is some irony in the fact that Democrats are rallying around Shah. Democratic colleagues from Shah’s time as a state lawmaker told the Arizona Republic he was not to be trusted after “working contrary to leadership,” was excluded from some caucus meetings and would “pass information” to Republicans to make his own bills more likely to pass.

It’s also unclear why Shah switched parties and voted in the 2016 Republican presidential preference election, even as he has claimed he has been a “tried-and-true Democrat the entire time.”

Still, Schweikert looks particularly vulnerable in this election. Two years ago, he barely eked out a victory over Democrat Jevin Hodge, who was appointed to the Arizona Legislature this year but only served 46 days before resigning after sexual misconduct allegations. Schweikert won by 3,195 votes — less than 1%.

This time around, Schweikert is running against a more experienced candidate. House Democrats are hoping their extra support will turn the tide on the congressman, whose battleground seat they have salivated over for years.

Phoenix New Times reached out to Schweikert’s office for comment but did not receive a response.

This one’s gonna be close

As it stands now, it looks like the race between Schweikert and Shah is a dead heat.

The DCCC commissioned an Impact Research poll, which it shared exclusively with New Times before releasing it publicly today. Conducted from Aug. 1-4, the poll shows that voters are split between Schweikert and Shah, each of whom garnered support from 48% of respondents. The pollsters also tested voter support for the candidates after giving “negatives on Schweikert.” In that scenario, Shah jumped to 51% support, while Schweikert dropped to 45%.

The DCCC may have commissioned it, but that doesn’t mean the poll is wrong. In the final 60 days before the 2022 election, the DCCC noted, its polls correctly predicted the ultimate winner 92% of the time.

The poll also shows that while the race is essentially a tie with fewer than three months to go before the election, the district — which is the wealthiest one in Arizona — leans heavily in favor of reproductive rights: 63% said they will vote in favor of the abortion initiative that will appear on the November ballot.

It’s no wonder that one of the main focuses of Shah’s campaign is protecting abortion rights, which is a weak spot in Schweikert’s record. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Schweikert tweeted he was “pleased.” Since then, the Arizona Republic highlighted how Schweikert has co-sponsored extreme legislation that defines a person as existing at the moment of fertilization.

Schweikert also is a member of the Republican Study Committee, which released a proposed budget that included a 15-week national abortion ban as well as legislation that could allow states to eliminate access to contraception and in vitro fertilization.

“Schweikert has spent over a decade in Congress working against Arizona's best interests, promoting a dangerous agenda to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, and restricting abortion access,” DelBene said in her statement.

In April, Schweikert and his political allies also settled a lawsuit brought by his 2022 GOP primary opponent, Elijah Norton, whom the congressman’s campaign insinuated was gay in a mailer that went to voters. The mailer showed Norton with a man at a bar and was captioned "Elijah Norton Isn't Being Straight With You.” It seems Norton isn’t even gay — he called the bigoted attack “totally false.”

Two years ago, Schweikert agreed to pay a $125,000 fine to the Federal Elections Commission after it found that he improperly spent campaign money on fancy dinners, gifts and airline upgrades.

Just as Democrats hoped for years that Arizona could swing blue in statewide races like it did in 2020 and 2022, flipping Schweikert’s seat has been a long-awaited affair. Doing it requires the right confluence of circumstances.

With a formidable opponent, increased focus from congressional Democrats on the race, changing demographics in the district, a storm of abortion rights support and a chaotic Republican Party, Schweikert’s time might just be up in November.