Rep. Andy Biggs won the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona on Tuesday, setting up a battle between him and Democratic incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs in one of the country’s most competitive battleground states.His win reflects the sway that President Donald Trump has over the Republican Party. Around 97% of candidates who were endorsed by Trump in 2026 swept their primary ballots as of mid-July, according to Ballotpedia.Trump celebrated the result on Truth Social on Wednesday, as well as the wins of several other down-ballot candidates he had endorsed in Arizona—like former NFL kicker Jay Feely, who will now face off for the First Congressional District, previously held by Republican Rep. David Schweikert. Schweikert gave up his bid for reelection in order to pursue the governor’s race and lost to Biggs on Tuesday. “MAGA CANDIDATES WON EVERYTHING LAST NIGHT IN ARIZONA, A COMPLETE SWEEP!!! I WON ARIZONA 18 MONTHS AGO. THE DUMOCRATS ARE DUMBFOUNDED,” Trump said. “AFTER DECADES, ARIZONA IS BECOMING A REPUBLICAN STATE. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!”A Republican stronghold from 1952-2016—with the exception of President Bill Clinton’s narrow victory in 1996—Arizona became a key battleground after President Joe Biden flipped the state by a narrow 10,000 votes in 2020. Trump won the state back in 2024, reinforcing Arizona's status as one of the nation's premier swing states. But Democrats continue to hold the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state posts, as well as both Senate seats, and they have controlled most of these offices for the past three years while the state experienced massive population growth and an expanding electorate.The Grand Canyon State will be closely watched in the midterms—especially because Democrats see Arizona as central to their effort to retake the House. Of the 18 districts the Cook Political Report has identified as a likely “toss up” in November, two of them are in Arizona: the First and Sixth districts.And the governor’s race is shaping up to be competitive: A May 18 poll by Noble Predictive Insights showed Hobbs leading Biggs 41% to 37%. Hobbs has acknowledged that this race will be hard-fought. “Look, I’m not listening to the pundits. I am doing what I need to win,” she told reporters in a press conference before the primary. “We know it’s going to be close. I’m not taking a single vote for granted.” “Let’s make this the year that we turn Arizona red again,” Biggs said in his celebration speech on Tuesday. A longtime supporter of Trump and the MAGA movementBiggs was chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2022, and he has been part of the MAGA movement since Trump’s first term. He became a close ally to the President and openly questioned the legitimacy of the election in 2020. Trump has long denied his loss to Biden, though his claims have been repeatedly debunked. By aligning with Trump, Biggs also garnered the endorsement of the late Charlie Kirk in May 2025 and his gubernatorial bid earned the support of Kirk’s influential conservative activist organization, Turning Point USA.After Biggs was elected to the House in 2016, he was often embroiled in Republican infighting: playing a prominent role in efforts to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and publicly rebelling against current Speaker Mike Johnson. Biggs penned an op-ed in the Washington Times in 2024, calling Johnson’s foreign aid bill a “disaster.”This hardline approach to governance led former rival Schweikert to campaign with the suggestion that Biggs would be too extreme and “unelectable” against a Democrat. But Republicans have publicly celebrated his win, including Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte. “Congratulations to Andy Biggs on his primary victory,” Gianforte said in a statement Tuesday. “Throughout his career in public service, Andy has fought to lower costs, grow Arizona’s economy, unleash American energy, and secure the border.”