Jay Feely won the Arizona Republican primary on Tuesday night and moved into the general election, where he will face the winner of the still-uncalled Democrat primary between Amish Shah and Marlene Galán-Woods.
The result gave the former NFL kicker a clear path forward after he defeated Joseph Chaplik and John Trobough, both of whom had argued he was not conservative enough even as President Donald Trump backed his bid. Feely, 50, is trying to make his first run for public office count in a race that is already drawing national attention because the Democratic side remains unsettled.
That uncertainty matters because the Democrats spent about $7 million in their primary, a sign of how heavily they invested in a contest they viewed as important. The money and the attention also followed Feely, whose campaign drew donations from figures with deep ties to the sports world, including Roger Goodell, Michael Bidwill, Bob Kraft, Rob Walton and Stephen Ross, while Arthur Blank gave $3,500 and Jimmy Haslam also contributed.
Feely used his victory celebration to frame the race as larger than one seat. He said he decided to run because he wanted to leave the country better for children and grandchildren, and argued that the country is being pulled in opposite directions by two parties that have never been further apart. He also said Democrats have embraced Democratic socialism and described their positions on the border, police, the Senate and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico as an effort to alter the country’s foundation.
The contest is for a district that includes parts of Phoenix and most of Scottsdale, and Feely now waits to see whether he will face Shah or Galán-Woods in November. The Republican race is settled; the question left is whether the Democrat primary can finally produce an opponent before the general election fight begins in earnest.
Feely spent 14 seasons in the NFL with six teams before turning to politics, and his win shows that Trump’s backing can still carry weight even when rivals try to use ideology against a candidate. For now, the race moves from a Republican primary upset attempt to a general election battle that still needs a Democratic name.
