Copper State Chaos: Schweikert’s One-Two Punch, Ripping Food Off the Table, and Nobody Is Celebrating

Welcome to Copper State Chaos, Copper State War Room’s weekly recap on the fails, feuds, and full-blown chaos in the Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary.

With Andy Biggs and David Schweikert locked in a bitter race to the bottom, this primary is spiraling into an ugly, expensive mess. We’ll keep the receipts – so you don’t have to.

Don’t miss this week’s chaos:

SCHWEIKERT’S ONE-TWO PUNCH:

• JAB: The Maricopa County GOP waded into the Andy Biggs versus David Schweikert debate over who has deeper ties to extremist groups, decrying Schweikert for inserting “character smears” into the primary and calling it an “act of desperation.” This comes after Schweikert escalated the infighting with a flier highlighting Biggs’ ties to white supremacist and antisemitic groups, kicking off a “downright nasty” back-and-forth that has consumed the GOP primary for the past month. Schweikert’s campaign made clear that he “will not back down” and argued that this was simply a “warm up, or an appetizer, for what's going to come.”

• CROSS: On FOX10 Talks yesterday morning, Schweikert continued to hammer Biggs’ extremism, pointing out that: “You can’t show up to… what is almost a white supremacist rally and be their speaker… and then think no one is going to find out… And then we wonder why those of us on the conservative side lose elections…” Schweikert then eviscerated Biggs ally Turning Point USA’s failure in this week’s SRP elections: “Other than a recall election, I know of no race Turning Point has actually won here in Arizona,” accusing them of “some questionable use of resources, but that’s for the lawyers to work through!” This continues a longstanding battle between Schweikert and Turning Point, which is not ending any time soon.

  
  

 RIPPING FOOD OFF THE TABLE: According to new reporting from ProPublica, more than 400,000 Arizonans, including about 180,000 children, have lost lifesaving SNAP benefits. This is “the largest decline in the nation by a wide margin,” and directly because of the partisan budget law backed by Andy Biggs and David Schweikert. Biggs said this partisan budget was a “good thing” and has argued for “the more cut approach,” which would decimate Arizona families even further. Schweikert bragged that he personally “co-wrote” this “historic” bill, which is now leaving Arizona families to wonder where their next meal is coming from.

NOBODY IS CELEBRATING: Last Friday, Arizona’s Family highlighted how Andy Biggs and David Schweikert’s tariff-first agenda is destroying Arizona’s economy. Arizona Chamber of Commerce CEO and president Danny Seiden, who was also a top staffer to former GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, told Arizona’s Family: “Nobody is celebrating.” He added: “What we have seen are prices have gone up. The ability of certain manufacturers to move forward has been challenged because there’s not certainty on the prices, there’s no certainty on financing, you can’t plan that way.” Arizona’s Family also noted families are feeling the effect of skyrocketing prices “every time they take a trip to the grocery store.” 

That’s all for Copper State Chaos this week. Thanks for reading – we’ll be back next week to keep tabs on the chaos. Have a great weekend!

###