Incumbent chair Gina Swoboda fended off a challenge from former Rep. Cory McGarr in the race for chair of the Republican Party of Arizona Saturday. 

In a hand count, Swoboda beat McGarr by 220 votes, collecting 978 votes to McGarr’s 758. A total of 1,736 Republicans voted in today’s meeting. 

Swoboda, senior elections advisor to the Senate, took the helm in 2024 following former chair Jeff DeWit’s resignation. He ceded his office after U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake leaked a recording where DeWit, on order from people “back east,” discouraged her from running for office. 

During Swoboda’s time at the top of the AZGOP, the party increased its majority by two seats in the House and a seat in the Senate, wrung the greatest swing state margin for President Donald Trump and raised $20 million, with 71% of party funds going to directly contact voters. 

She picked up an endorsement from Trump in both her first shot for chair and in her bid for reelection and received support this time around from both federal and state lawmakers. 

But early on, Swoboda faced a challenge from McGarr,  former LD17 representative and the only incumbent Republican to be booted from his seat after losing to Democrat Kevin Volk in the 2024 election. 

In his bid for chair, McGarr saw support from Kari Lake, Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, national committeewoman and expelled house member Liz Harris and Turning Point USA affiliates. 

In his candidate speech, McGarr said both Hoffman and Harris “independently” approached him about his candidacy and “to say current leadership talks the talk but fails to walk the walk.”

McGarr said his gripes and concerns were with getting “rid of the establishment’s grip on our party,” and said he was “not content with our leadership leaving the door wide open for them to come back into power.” 

He further claimed the AZGOP refused to “lift a finger” to help conservative school board candidates, a nonpartisan office, and said he wanted to see the party work from the governor’s office all the way down ballot. 

In her remarks, Swoboda again trotted out the record of the party under her purview and emphasized the need for “experienced hand at the reins.” 

She said she believed the party to be “more unified than the entire time I’ve been a PC and that’s over 10 years.” She responded to McGarr’s claim of Swoboda “leaving the door open” to establishment Republican control. 

“The party belongs to you, and as long as I am in this chair, no organization, or person, or PAC, or consultant is going to take away the power from the state committeemen, the grassroots, who are the true people,” Swoboda said.

Republicans reelected Swoboda, and elected Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould as treasurer and Nickie Kelley, a former candidate for Maricopa County School Superintendent, as secretary.  

A wrapped statutory meeting fired a proverbial starting gun for the 2026 election, with a lingering question of who will emerge victorious in top state offices. 

As for the governor’s race, Congressman Andy Biggs announced he is running for governor in his remarks to the state committee today after filing a statement of interest Tuesday. 

“I am jumping in formally,” Biggs said. “It is now time to Make Arizona Great Again.”

Sporting a pair of American flag Crocs, Biggs first polled the party on whether he should get a haircut. He then asked who would support him in his bid for governor, prompting a sea of raised vote cards.

He is likely to face off against Karrin Taylor Robson, who has yet to file a statement of interest or formally launch her campaign, but has already received support from Trump and seen a PAC, dubbed Building a Better Arizona, form to support her candidacy.