{"id":818109,"date":"2026-07-22T07:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818109\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:19:12","slug":"trump-endorsed-ex-nfl-kicker-jay-feely-wins-gop-primary-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818109\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-endorsed ex-NFL kicker Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a>-backed candidate and former NFL kicker\u00a0Jay Feely<\/a>\u00a0has won the Republican primary<\/a> in Arizona’s key swing Congressional District 1, the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NBC News<\/a>\u00a0have projected.<\/p>\n

With nearly 69% of the vote in, Feely handily defeated\u00a0former state\u00a0Rep. Joe Chaplik<\/a>\u00a0and businessman\u00a0John Trobough<\/a>. Feely is seeking to replace retiring GOP Congressman and current Arizona gubernatorial candidate\u00a0David Schweikert<\/a>\u00a0in the wealthy, metro-Phoenix-based congressional seat.<\/p>\n

Feely initially ran for Congress for Arizona’s 5th District, but switched to District 1 after Trump endorsed former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who became the clear front-runner.<\/p>\n

But the 1st District could be a toss-up in November. Feely will either face Democratic primary challengers former state legislator\u00a0Amish Shah<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marlene\u00a0Gal\u00e1n-Woods<\/a>, a former television news anchor endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The two Democrats squared off in the 2024 primary, with Shah beating Gal\u00e1n-Woods by about 1,700 votes.\u00a0Shah eventually lost to Schweikert, but could be a contender again this year.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Cardinals kicker Jay Feely participates in the 2026 AZ Clean Elections primary debate for the 1st Congressional District at Sneaky Big Studios in Scottsdale on June 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

“When I chose to walk away from my NFL broadcasting career, keeping the Republican majority was the primary focus,” Feely\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>\u00a0posted on the social platform X. “We must maintain a GOP majority to ensure lower costs for Arizona’s families, safety in our neighborhoods, and the preservation of the American Dream.”<\/p>\n

According to public data from the\u00a0Federal Election Commission<\/a>, Feely’s congressional campaign has received thousands of dollars<\/a> from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, NBA legend Charles Barkley, CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz and New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh, among others.<\/p>\n

Feely played for the\u00a0Atlanta Falcons<\/a>,\u00a0New York Giants<\/a>,\u00a0Miami Dolphins<\/a>,\u00a0New York Jets<\/a>,\u00a0Arizona Cardinals<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chicago Bears<\/a>\u00a0from 2001 to 2014.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Tom Viera<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump-endorsed ex-NFL kicker Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump-backed candidate and former NFL kicker\u00a0Jay Feely\u00a0has won the Republican primary in Arizona’s key swing Congressional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[286827,5585,49,48,286826,286828,168078,135829,286825,514,82],"class_list":["post-818109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-amish-shah","tag-arizona","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-schweikert","tag-democratic-congressional-campaign-committee","tag-democratic-primary","tag-gop","tag-jay-feely","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}