Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely cruised to victory in Arizona’s 1st District on Tuesday, one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.
Feely, a close ally of President Donald Trump, leveraged Trump’s endorsement to topple former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik.
He’ll face a steep challenge defeating the Democratic nominee in November: The 1st District, which spans the affluent suburbs north of Phoenix, is one of House Democrats’ top targets after Trump won it by just three points in 2024. Feely is looking to keep the seat under GOP control amid a midterm year that presents major headwinds for the party.
During the primary, Chaplik, a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, attacked Feely for being insufficiently conservative on gun rights and for his humanitarian work in Haiti. But Feely, one of Trump’s occasional golf partners, leaned on his proximity to the president.
“Who can call [Trump] and who can get him to answer? That’s me,” Feely said in a debate. “He will take my call and he will listen. I have the ability to have the ear of the president.”
Feely, a former professional football player who counts Tom Brady among his college roommates, first announced his candidacy for GOP Rep. Andy Biggs’ seat in the 5th District. But after Trump backed former Pinal County sheriff Mark Lamb in that race, Feely switched to the 1st District, where he earned the president’s dual endorsement, alongside former state GOP chair Gina Swoboda.
“Both fierce advocates of Make America Great Again, Jay and Gina have been with us from the very beginning, and either one would be an incredible Representative,” Trump said in January on Truth Social.
In February, Swoboda dropped her candidacy for the 1st District and instead ran for secretary of state, leaving the path clear for Feely.
As a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s MAGA Majority fundraising program, Feely will likely be a top recipient of outside Republican spending in the months leading to November.