The race for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country. Three conservative candidates say they can keep it in Republican control.
CD1 encompasses Scottsdale, Cave Creek and north Phoenix. It’s been represented by Republican David Schweikert for 15 years, but he’s running for governor.
The three Republican candidates competing in the primary are former state legislator Joseph Chaplik, former tech company CEO John Trobough and former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely.
Feely speaks a lot about his faith. He grew up Catholic but said he found Christ in his first year of college and is nondenominational.
Scottsdale resident Greg Huber and his wife hosted a small campaign event for Feely in their home. They were supporters of late conservative activist and devout Christian Charlie Kirk, who Feely likened himself to.
Huber said Feely’s religion is what stands out to him.
“It's just his faith and his background with that. I love his work ethic with sports and everything, too. That just tells me a lot about somebody that they can be at that level, maintain a family relationship and a faith relationship,” Huber said. “That's just not something your average person can do.”
Support for Trump
All three GOP candidates said they support President Donald Trump and his policies, but only Feely has his endorsement.
Feely said he met Trump about 20 years ago before either of them got into politics. As a celebrity, Feely was asked to play in a golf tournament hosted by Trump’s foundation. He laughingly said he’s a better golfer than the president.
“Yes, but I'm usually on his team, except for when I brought my son, Jace. He was partners with the president and they kicked our butts,” Feely said.
He said Trump and other Republican leaders reached out and asked him to run.
Trobough told KJZZ he supports a lot of the president’s policies. And like Schweikert, describes himself as a “fiscal hawk.”
Trobough said he’ll be the most “independent" of the three GOP candidates.
“I am keenly interested in, how do we start to address our debt and some of these other things?” Trobough said. “And not to say that the president is not, but I would consider myself a more traditional fiscal conservative or Reagan conservative as opposed to a, you know, a hardcore MAGA, you know, conservative, if you will.”
Chaplik did not respond to interview requests from KJZZ. But in a debate hosted by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, he laid the blame for inflation at the feet of the Biden administration and said slashing government bloat is a priority.
“Day one, first important issue is balancing that budget in DC,” Chaplik said. “Our country is $2 trillion in debt every budget cycle. We need to cut that waste, fraud and abuse and stop the overspending. We have a spending problem.”
Chaplik touts the fact that he’s the only candidate that has legislative experience, with five years in the state House of Representatives. While there, Chaplik was a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus.
Immigration and border security
A first time candidate, Feely told KJZZ the most important thing to do in Congress is solidify Trump’s actions into law — especially on the border, which he credits Trump for securing.
At the tail end of former President Joe Biden’s term, Trump encouraged Republicans to kill a bipartisan border security bill.
The Democrats running in their own CD1 primary say that was a start to avoid securing the border so that Trump could run on a platform of immigration control.
Feely said that’s hypocritical because Democrats only made that deal so they could campaign on having accomplished immigration reform.
“At any point, President Biden could have done what President Trump did because everything he's done has been through executive order, and he closed the border through executive order, and the measures he took were available to President Biden,” Feely said.
DACA is a hot button topic in Washington, D.C., at the moment. It’s a program which allows immigrants who came to the U.S. as young children to remain in the country.
Feely didn’t say whether he supports DACA, but said the immigration system should be reformed. He noted he and his family helped two young Haitian men come to the United States and paid for one of them to go to college, but they weren’t a part of DACA.
Chaplik said America needs to rewrite its immigration system and deal with DACA somewhere down the line.
Election security and reform
One policy area where the three candidates differ is on election security and reform.
Trobough said he doesn’t see an issue with mail-in voting, used by the majority of Arizona voters, including himself.
Chaplik said in the Clean Elections debate that he doesn’t support it.
“Mail-in ballots, I don't believe in,” he said.
Chaplik has also claimed multiple times that the 2020 and 2022 elections were “rigged.”
Feely wouldn’t go that far. When asked if the 2020 and 2022 elections were safe, he said there are “a lot of questions.”
Feely said if more had been published on the Hunter Biden laptop story, that would have changed the election. He also referred to issues with tabulation machines at some Maricopa County vote centers on Election Day in 2022. He didn’t say those issues were intentional, but that they discouraged people from voting.
Feely advocates for making Arizona’s elections more like Florida’s — a concept pushed this year by state Republican legislators — to get election results faster. The main piece of that proposal would alter Arizona’s election timeline, not letting voters drop off mail-in ballots past the Friday before Election Day.
Chaplik also supports faster election results and advocates for “one day, one vote.”
All of the candidates said they want to pass the SAVE Act.
Democrats argue that law — which requires voters to show ID — would kill mail-in voting, because voters don’t have a way to attach proof of identity to mailed ballots.
Some Republicans dismiss that claim as fearmongering.
Mudslinging
The primary so far has been marred by a smattering of attack ads, accusations and name calling.
During the Clean Elections debate, Chaplik accused Feely of being in cahoots with a political action committee that put up signs with an AI picture of Chaplik and said AI deepfakes are stealing people’s identities.
The signs in question depict an AI version of Chaplik wearing a shirt with a black fist on it and accuse him of “standing with California unions.”
Feely denied involvement with the signs, which were put up by Conservatives for Effective Government, and he accused Chaplik of lying.
Chaplik also went after Feely for changing his stance on gun control, pointing to tweets Feely said are from “10 or 20 years ago.”
Feely wrote in 2015 that he favored gun control measures like mandatory waiting periods, but now says his position changed in 2020 during Black Lives Matter protests.
Feely said, at the time, some of his neighbors thought the area — Agritopia in Gilbert — was going to be targeted by riots, and he patrolled the area around his house armed with a gun.
He said he realized the importance of having armed civilians for when the government oversteps.
Feely also says his current stance is something his opponents are aware of and any attempt to paint him as a politician who wants to “take people’s guns” is disingenuous
Feely and Trobough also sniped at each other in an earlier debate hosted by Arizona PBS, which Chaplik didn’t attend — calling PBS a “Democrat show.”
During that debate, Feely accused Trobough of being a Democrat and supporting President Barack Obama. Trobough responded by calling Feely a carpetbagger with no business experience and alleged he is “bought and paid for by Washington, D.C.”
Feely is a resident of Gilbert, which is in the 5th Congressional District. He initially jumped into that race, but pulled out when Trump and his supporters encouraged former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb to join the CD5 race.
Feely says he’s purchased land in Scottsdale and is in the process of building a new home there.
Trobough says the Obama comment is in reference to his work as a Presidential Innovation fellow, which he says was a nonpartisan role and one he remained in for the beginning of Trump’s first term. He told KJZZ that role also helped prepare him for Congress.
“I understand AI. I understand I've spent a large portion of my career in the Middle East,” Trobough said. “I've spent a portion of my time in D.C. dealing with the issues of China, educating Congress, so I have a, you know, probably a deeper, you know, professional background in technology and some of the where it crosses over with geopolitics.”
As for his relationship with Trump, Feely says that will translate to more influence for Arizona and CD1 — like with the issue of securing Colorado River rights.
“Who can call him and who can get him to answer? That’s me. He will take my call and he will listen,” Feely said. “I have the ability to have the ear of the president and in situations like this where we need his help to go to him and get that help.”
Committee preferences
If elected, Feely says he’d like to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, where Schweikert holds a spot now. It’s one of the most powerful committees in the chamber. After that, he also wants to sit on the House Energy and Commerce committee.
Trobough moved to Arizona about eight years ago and says, while he’d also like to sit on House Ways and Means, it’s unlikely whoever succeeds Schweikert will get to start there as a freshman lawmaker.
Feely and Trobough both said they’ll work across the aisle in Congress.
The primary election will be held on July 21. Early voting is in progress.
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