Representative David Schweikert, Republican of Arizona, announced on Tuesday that he would run for governor in the state, scrambling his party’s primary for the office and giving Democrats a prime pickup opportunity in a competitive House district.
Mr. Schweikert, 63, immediately becomes a serious contender in what was a two-way primary between Representative Andy Biggs, a fierce Trump loyalist, and the more moderate Republican Karrin Taylor Robson, a wealthy developer and lawyer.
“We’re going to try to actually demonstrate to voters what a conservative agenda looks like,” Mr. Schweikert said in an interview. “I don’t believe there’s anyone in the southwest in the last 25 years who’s run as many competitive races as I have, and yet not given an inch on their conservatism.”
Mr. Schweikert, an eight-term congressman who rode the Tea Party backlash to the Obama administration into office in 2010, representing an affluent suburban region of Phoenix and Scottsdale ever since, may try to stake out a path between the two.
A former member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and a fiscal hawk obsessed with shrinking the federal deficit, he has credibility among conservatives but has also repeatedly won over his district’s relatively moderate voters, maintaining a low profile and largely abstaining from President Trump’s combative brand of politics.
The Republican candidates are vying to face Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, in next year’s general election.
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The post Rep. David Schweikert Will Run for Governor in Arizona appeared first on New York Times.
