Amish Shah wins in Arizona Democratic House primary in blow to establishment

Amish Shah speaks to supporters at a friend's home on 21 July 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph: Wufei Yu/AP View image in fullscreen Amish Shah speaks to supporters at a friend's home on 21 July 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph: Wufei Yu/AP Amish Shah wins in Arizona Democratic House primary in blow to establishment Shah will face Republican Jay Freely, a Trump-backed former NFL kicker, in November for battleground seat Amish Shah won the Democratic primary on Wednesday in a hotly contested congressional district in Arizona , delivering another defeat to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backed a rival, as more voters reject the preferences of party leaders in Washington. Shah, an emergency physician, will face Republican Jay Feely , a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team — the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker. The DCCC-backed Marlene Galán-Woods, a former Republican who switched parties at the beginning of Trump’s first term. The competition for the 1st congressional district, an affluent area that includes north-east Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley, is expected to help determine control of the US House of Representatives. Although Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, the district has shifted toward the center over the last decade. Election deniers win Republican primaries in Arizona Read more The seat is open because the Republican representative David Schweikert ran for governor, losing to Representative Andy Biggs in the GOP primary on Tuesday. The DCCC’s decision to endorse Galán-Woods, a former television journalist in Phoenix, puzzled local Democrats because there was little ideological difference between her and Shah. Both are moderates, and the race was not a proxy fight in the party’s deepening feud between progressives and centrists. “Our victory in this primary was a grassroots victory where Arizona voters made their voices heard,” Shah said on Wednesday night in a statement that did not address the DCCC snub. “Now, it’s my job to earn the support of every voter in this district.” Suzan DelBene, a US representative and the DCCC chair, issued a statement calling Feely an “extremist” and saying Shah “will always put his community first”, but did not address the controversy surrounding the support for Galán-Woods. The National Republican Congressional Committee quickly released a digital ad on Wednesday attacking Shah, labeling him a socialist and tying him to progressives in Congress. “I’m a political outsider committed to delivering results,” Feely said in a statement. The race was in some ways a replay of 2024, when Shah narrowly won in a crowded primary field that included Galán-Woods and lost in the general election. The DCCC did not endorse in the primary that year but backed Shah in the general. The DCC