Copper State Chaos: Stop the Co-Chair Count, Running Up the Score, And Spiking Healthcare Costs

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.

As Andy Biggs, Karrin Taylor Robson, and David Schweikert are 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:

STOP THE (CO-CHAIR) COUNT!: Former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Karrin Taylor Robson’s own campaign co-chair, criticized federal raids on Georgia’s election warehouses in Fulton County as “out of line” and “not constitutional,” citing her experience as Secretary of State and praising Arizona’s safe and secure elections. Taylor Robson, meanwhile, stayed silent after previously calling the 2020 election “unfair” and refused to say whether she would have certified it. From calling out unconstitutional election interference to opposing cuts that would gut Medicaid, Brewer has shown she’s willing to stand up to her own party — while Karrin Taylor Robson has proven she’s too weak to stand up for Arizonans.

RUNNING UP THE SCORE: This Super Bowl Sunday, Arizona families will shoulder Republican tariff hikes on aluminum with each soda and beer can they purchase. But it’s not just beverages that have taken a hit – turning on the big game will also be more expensive, thanks to the steel and aluminum tariffs backed by Andy Biggs, Karrin Taylor Robson, and David Schweikert that are causing electricity costs to surge upwards of 30 percent. Steel and aluminum are key materials needed to maintain, repair, and build our power grid infrastructure, and when you jack up the prices of the materials needed to keep the power grid running, it’s consumers who end up paying for those costs.

CARE, NOT CUTS: New polling data from KFF shows that healthcare cuts and cost spikes are both deeply unpopular and the top issue for voters across all political parties. That’s bad news for Andy Biggs, Karrin Taylor Robson, and David Schweikert, who championed their party’s partisan budget, which stripped healthcare tax credits away from 423,000 Arizonans, sending the monthly cost of health insurance through the roof. Despite ACA marketplace plans jumping nearly 30 percent on average in Arizona, all three candidates refused to join bipartisan calls to reverse the damage, with Biggs and Schweikert voting against lowering costs.

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!

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