Amish Shah won the Democratic primary on 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.
Shah, an emergency physician, will face Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team — the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker.
The DCCC-backed Marlene Galán-Woods, a former Republican who switched parties at the beginning of Trump’s first term.
The competition for the ۱st congressional district, an affluent area that includes north-east Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley, is expected to help determine control of the US House of Representatives. Although Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, the district has shifted toward the center over the last decade.
The seat is open because the Republican representative David Schweikert ran for governor, losing to Representative Andy Biggs in the GOP primary on Tuesday.
The DCCC’s decision to endorse Galán-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’s deepening feud between progressives and centrists.
“Our victory in this primary was a grassroots victory where Arizona voters made their voices heard,” Shah said on Wednesday night in a statement that did not address the DCCC snub. “Now, it’s my job to earn the support of every voter in this district.”
Suzan DelBene, a US representative and the DCCC chair, issued a statement calling Feely an “extremist” and saying Shah “will always put his community first”, but did not address the controversy surrounding the support for Galán-Woods.
The National Republican Congressional Committee quickly released a digital ad on Wednesday attacking Shah, labeling him a socialist and tying him to progressives in Congress. “I’m a political outsider committed to delivering results,” Feely said in a statement.
The race was in some ways a replay of ۲۰۲۴, when Shah narrowly won in a crowded primary field that included Galán-Woods and lost in the general election. The DCCC did not endorse in the primary that year but backed Shah in the general.
The DCCC announced its support for Galán-Woods in May, when it added her to a list of candidates it was supporting in Republican-controlled districts. At the time, DelBene talked up Galán-Woods’ experience in broadcast journalism but said nothing about Shah.
“I wasn’t exactly my party’s pick,” Shah told supporters on Tuesday night. “And I was willing to stand up to that establishment. And that’s what the voters of this district want.”
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 will probably be a tough race in a district Trump carried narrowly in ۲۰۲۴. Joe Biden won the district during his presidential campaign in ۲۰۲۰ even as Schweikert was re-elected.
Antiestablishment fervor has spooked congressional leaders, who fear that swing voters will see some insurgent candidates as too extreme and squander Democrats’ opportunity to take advantage of Trump’s unpopularity.
Last month the progressive Randy Villegas beat a DCCC-backed candidate for a top battleground district in California’s Central valley. And similarly in Maine, Matt Dunlap defeated a more moderate rival backed by the party.
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.
“The Democratic party needs to grow up and wake up,” said Maria Liong, a ۲۴-year-old medical student who volunteered for Shah’s campaign. “They need to realize that they want candidates who listen to their people.”
In the GOP primary, Feely defeated Joseph Chaplik, a former state lawmaker popular with grassroots activists, for the party’s nomination. Feely was in the NFL with seven teams over ۱۴ seasons, including with the Arizona Cardinals from ۲۰۱۰ to ۲۰۱۳. He became an NFL broadcaster after retiring in ۲۰۱۴.
Feely and Shah overlapped on the Jets during the ۲۰۰۸ and ۲۰۰۹ 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.
“It’s an old relationship,” Feely said of Shah on Tuesday night, before it was clear which Democrat he would face in November. “But whoever it is, I want to do this the right way. I want to run this the right way.”
