After Backing Tariff Cost Hikes, Schweikert Proposes New Tax on Arizonans

In a new report, Arizona’s Family uncovered comments from Republican gubernatorial candidate David Schweikert supporting a new tax hike on Arizonans. Responding to the Supreme Court’s ruling against Trump’s tariffs, Schweikert said he was “not going to let this whole thing fall apart” and wanted to implement a “universal tariff.”

Both Andy Biggs and Schweikert have already voted twice this month to keep tariff cost hikes in place, and when Trump responded with new 15 percent tariffs, Biggs and Schweikert refused to stand up to stop them.

Arizona businesses have been sounding the alarm. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce warned that Schweikert’s proposal would “ultimately increase costs for Arizona businesses and consumers.” From breweries to arts and crafts shops, small businesses continue to push back against tariffs that are squeezing their bottom line.

Read more below about David Schweikert’s never-ending cost-hiking agenda:

Arizona’s Family: Rep. David Schweikert pushes for border tax to replace Trump tariffs

Dennis Welch

February 23, 2026

• Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican running for governor, is pushing for a border adjustment tax, a fee on imported goods, as a replacement for President Trump’s tariffs after a court struck them down.

• A border adjustment tax is a duty placed on imported goods. Critics, including the National Retail Federation, say the tax “falls hardest on working families who spend a larger share of their income on goods.”

• The idea is not new. The first Trump administration abandoned a similar broad import tax in 2017 after pushback from major companies, including Walmart and Toyota.

• Schweikert said he does not want the tariff plan to collapse following the court’s ruling.

• “Hopefully not going to let this whole thing fall apart,” Schweikert said.

• He outlined his plans during an interview on KFYI’s The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris.

• “We are actually doing a whole hearing on my economic committee to actually try to move forward the legislation to fix this, and that would be sort of the universal tariff to make it permanent and fix it forever,” Schweikert said.

• Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Charlene Fernandez pushed back on the proposal.

• “I believe what we’ve seen in the past few months ... that tariffs are not good for working people in Arizona and across the country,” she said.

• The Arizona Chamber of Commerce also weighed in, saying “broad taxes on imports, whether structured as tariffs or through the tax code, ultimately increase costs for Arizona businesses and consumers.”

  
  

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