Galán-Woods gets national Democratic endorsement over Shah in Arizona's CD1

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is playing favorites in Arizona’s competitive Congressional District 1.

Every two years, the DCCC releases a slate of candidates it considers top contenders to flip congressional seats from red to blue — part of efforts to seize majority control of the U.S. House back from Republicans.

On Monday, the DCCC added eight new candidates to that slate, including Marlene Galán-Woods, a former reporter and former Republican. She’s the widow of the late Grant Woods, a Republican who served as Arizona’s attorney general in the 1990s.

In a statement, Galán-Woods hailed the endorsement — which comes with a boost in fundraising and campaign support from top Democrats in Washington, D.C. — as evidence she’s the “strongest candidate” to flip CD1, long represented by GOP Congressman David Schweikert, from red to blue in November.

But first, Galán-Woods will have to fend off five challengers in the primary, including former state lawmaker Amish Shah, the candidate who won the Democratic Party’s nomination in CD1 two years ago — and defeated Galán-Woods in the process.

Joe Rondone

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The Arizona Republic/Pool

Galán-Woods came in third place in that six-way Democratic primary.

The DCCC’s endorsement of Galán-Woods drew a sharp rebuke from Shah, an emergency room physician who said “elites in Washington should not be meddling in this race.”

“This election will be decided by Arizona voters, not by establishment insiders in back rooms,” Shah said in a statement.

The Galán-Woods campaign says the endorsement is the latest example of support coalescing around her campaign, touting endorsements from prominent Arizona elected officials and labor organizations like the Arizona AFL-CIO.

And polling conducted by CHC BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, projected Galán-Woods leading a potential Republican opponent.

Shah, however, points to independent local polling conducted in February that shows him leading Galán-Woods by a 3-to-1 margin among likely Democratic primary voters.