Ex-NFL star backed by Trump wins battleground state primary: 'True America First Conservative'

Former NFL kicker Jay Feely won the Republican primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, giving the GOP a Trump-backed nominee in a competitive open-seat race that will help determine which party controls the House.

Feely, who received President Donald Trump’s "complete and total endorsement" in the final stretch of the race, defeated former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik and businessman John Trobough in the GOP contest to replace Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., who is running for governor but lost in his primary Tuesday night.

Arizona’s 1st Congressional District is a Phoenix-area battleground that both parties see as competitive heading into November. The district includes northeastern Maricopa County and large parts of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Fountain Hills, according to Arizona PBS’ candidate forum.

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Jay Feely, former NFL kicker and Republican Congressional candidate for Arizona, greets voters outside a polling location at Fountain Hills Community Center during a primary election in Fountain Hills, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (Cassidy Araiza/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump endorsed Feely in a video message days before the primary, calling him a "true America First conservative" and urging voters to support him in the July 21 election. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) also placed Feely in its "MAGA Majority" program, which the committee says is aimed at supporting America First candidates in battleground districts.

The GOP primary became increasingly personal in its final weeks when Chaplik accused Feely on X of having "imported Haitians," a remark Feely described as racist and directed at Haitian men he considers family, according to Axios Phoenix.

"This tweet had NOTHING to do with your two family members and everything to do with your history of bringing large numbers of Haitian migrants to NGOs in an attempt to get amnesty here," Chaplik shot back on X. "You have a history of opposing Trump on TPS for Haiti."

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President Donald Trump demanded "NO CHANGES" to the funding deal he brokered with Senate Democrats as a cohort of House Republicans push for voter ID laws to be added into the mix. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Feely, who has spent years doing nonprofit relief work in Haiti after a devastating 2010 earthquake there, has defended his work as humanitarian, not political, telling Axios Phoenix that he helped two young Haitian men — a translator he worked with and the translator’s brother — come to the U.S. Feely said he considers them members of his family and has also tried to assist several of their relatives in relocating.

Feely will advance to a general election in one of the most closely watched House races in the country, as Republicans try to hold Schweikert’s seat and Democrats look to capitalize on an open race in a district that has remained competitive in recent cycles.

Jay Feely, former NFL kicker and Republican Congressional candidate for Arizona, speaks to members of the media outside a polling location at Fountain Hills Community Center during a primary election in Fountain Hills, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Arizona's primaries will provide an early test of how much President Trump's focus on debunked claims of 2020 election fraud motivates Republicans. (Cassidy Araiza/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The Democrat candidates for Arizona's 1st Congressional District include former state lawmaker Amish Shah and former television news anchor Marlene Galán-Woods, the two leading Democrats in the race, along with Rick McCartney and Jonathan Treble.