Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely announced his candidacy to replace Republican Congressman Andy Biggs, who is running for governor.
Feely played fourteen years in the NFL, including four seasons with the Cardinals. After retiring in 2014, he became a football analyst for CBS.
Now he is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Congressional District 5, a heavily Republican district in the East Valley.
“When I think of politics, we need more politicians that don’t want to get into office to be self-serving,” Feely said at a campaign launch event at Agritopia in Gilbert. “We need more politicians to get into office that don’t want to do it for a career. I don’t want to do it for a career.”
Feely, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, vowed to support the president if elected and laid out a lengthy policy agenda that largely mirrors goals laid out by the Trump administration.
That includes support for the president’s economic policies despite negative economic indicators directly tied to widespread tariffs implemented by the administration.
“I think we all need to have patience and trust in President Trump and his economic team that they care about the average everyday American,” he said. “It's not necessarily just about the stock market.”
However, Feely did say he is against adding to the national debt, even though a federal budget plan supported by the president could add trillions of dollars to the federal debt.
“Well, I'm somebody who's going to continue to push the notion that we have to reduce our spending,” he said. “We don't have a revenue problem in the U.S. We have a spending problem.”
He also said he supports the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation effort that has, in some cases, grabbed up immigrants in the country with legal status.
But he also said he supports legal immigration, citing the case of Delmonte, a young Haitian man Feely met while in Haiti helping with disaster relief. Feely said he helped Delmonte obtain a visa, with some assistance from Biggs, and ultimately helped him attend and graduate from Grand Canyon University.
“I love Delmonte. Delmonte is like my son,” Feely said.
Still, he said he believes the process to come into the U.S. legally should be made easier.
“I think we should have an easier legal immigration process. It should be streamlined,” Feely said.
Feely enters what is expected to be a crowded 2026 GOP primary to replace Biggs.
So far, seven Republicans have expressed interest in running for the seat, including former state lawmaker Travis Grantham, who officially launched his campaign earlier this month.
Feely would not say whether Trump or Biggs have backed his campaign, though he noted Trump and Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan approached him about running for office years ago. Jordan has endorsed Feely’s campaign, he said.
