Representative Andy Biggs, a conservative ally of President Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. His victory tees up a general election showdown with the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Katie Hobbs, in the battleground state.
Mr. Biggs prevailed over three other challengers, including Representative David Schweikert, who argued that the party needed to nominate more moderate candidates to win back statewide offices. Four years ago, the hard-right nominee, Kari Lake, lost to Ms. Hobbs amid fractures between Trump-aligned Republicans and those still loyal to Senator John McCain even after his death.
Now facing a vulnerable sitting governor, Mr. Biggs will have to unite Republicans, who outnumber Democrats in Arizona by about seven percentage points.
The primary race began as a wide-open affair, but Mr. Biggs eventually became the clear favorite, propelled by an endorsement from Mr. Trump and the enthusiastic support of Turning Point USA, the Phoenix-based conservative political group.
Mr. Biggs, the former chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, began his campaign early last year, dismayed that Arizona was not “the reddest state in the country.” He pledged to transform it into “the Florida of the West.”
Yet elevating the most conservative candidates in the field has not been a winning strategy in recent statewide general elections, where such Republicans have lost to Democrats in races for governor, both Senate seats, attorney general and secretary of state.
Michelle Daye, 55, a supporter of Mr. Biggs from the south Phoenix neighborhood of Ahwatukee, said she thought this candidate would be different.
“He’s not polarizing,” she said. “He’s not an all-or-nothing guy.”
Democrats, along with Mr. Biggs’s Republican opponents, disagreed. But strategists have said the positioning shows that Mr. Biggs is conscious of his party’s past missteps and is working to avoid them.
“Biggs has run a very disciplined campaign,” said Paul Betz, an Arizona-based Republican pollster. “He has not taken the bait on a lot of things that would have tripped Kari Lake up. We’ll see how it goes in the general.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Biggs said he would overhaul Arizona’s tax structure, including eliminating its flat individual income tax, which is among the lowest in the country, to compete with other Sun Belt states like Texas and Florida. Mr. Biggs said he would plug the resulting holes in the state budget — already plagued by shortfalls — by cracking down on fraud in state programs.
Mr. Biggs largely avoided discussing his central role in Mr. Trump’s drive to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Citing false claims of fraud, Mr. Biggs voted against certifying former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win in Arizona and other states.
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