Key Points: 

• Sergio Arellano elected chair of Republican Party of Arizona 
• Sitting chair Gina Swoboda left seat to pursue congressional run
• Eligibility questions and hand count prolonged meeting

Sergio Arellano was elected as the next chair of the Republican Party of Arizona at the annual mandatory meeting on Jan. 24, following a run-off with Pam Kirby. 

Despite rumors that sitting chair Gina Swoboda would secure a nomination from the floor and stay at the helm, the meeting went by without any major upsets. 

“Enough of the division, enough of the fighting, let’s focus on winning and kicking butt in November,” Arellano said. 

Nominations started with four candidates – Arellano, Kirby, Kathleen Winn and Robert Branch. 

The initial round of voting put Arellano and Kirby in a runoff, with Arellano taking 655 votes and Kirby taking 603, and dropped Branch, with 200 votes, and Winn, with 196 votes. 

A brief last-ditch effort to keep Swoboda resulted in drawn-out procedural tension and a run-off vote between Sergio Arellano and Pam Kirby, stretching the meeting until late evening. 

In the final round, Arellano prevailed, with 761 votes to Kirby’s 621. 

Before any votes were cast, Saturday’s meeting kicked off with a debate over whether to allow a “fractional” appointed state committeemen to vote, and for Arellano, to run for a leadership position. 

Under state law and bylaws, the party elects one state committeeman for every three precinct committeemen, ensuring a proportionate share for each legislative district. 

But the math required rarely yields a clean round number and often leaves decimals, or “fractional” appointments, in an awkward gray area. In past chair practice, remaining fractions were typically rounded up, giving way to the appointment of additional committeemen.

Swoboda said under her leadership that, instead of rounding up each decimal to a state committeeman, the party would add all the remaining decimals, creating a total of 16 “fractional” state committeemen. 

Ahead of the meeting, legal threats challenged the practice altogether. 

The party maintained fractional reserve appointments as a reasonable interpretation of the law, but decided to vacate state committeemen status for the 16 “fractional” members, Arellano among them, citing potential damage to party unity and finances. 

The decision made Arellano, a fractional member, no longer eligible for the chair or the committee. But after a back-and-forth on points of order and information, and ultimately a motion, the party voted to allow the 16 members to vote, clearing the way for Arellano. 

The field stuck to the four candidates despite ultimately unsuccessful motions to first request Swoboda reconsider her resignation and then to throw her name in the chair race.

Amid a run for Congressional District 1, Swoboda said she would resign upon election of a new chair. Though there was some speculation that Swoboda would try to stay, she told the party today it was time for her to step aside and thus shut down a motion to nominate her. 

“Don’t try to keep me, let’s just go. It’s been an honor,” Swoboda said. “Just continue to work together.” 

Swoboda’s time at the helm oversaw the return of big-dollar donors, increased voter contact spending, and coordinated campaigns, reaping wins for the Republican party up and down the ballot in 2024. 

Her work inspired the ire of Turning Point, though, culminating in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to oust Swoboda at the 2025 organizational meeting. 

Criticism of Swoboda continued, but in a departure, Turning Point did not charge into the chair race at the same tenor this year, offering no single endorsement. 

Arellano now takes the mantle, bringing with him his experience as a son of immigrants, a veteran, president and CEO of Tipping Point, LLC, a political consulting firm, and as a founding member of the AZGOP Latino Coalition. 

He attributed his success to his work to expand party membership and donors during his campaign. 

“We can address and expand the umbrella a little bit more to welcome individuals who are tired of one side or the other as far as rhetoric goes,” Arellano said. “We lead with conservatism and family values.” 

As for day one business, Arellano hopes to start dialing for dollars, a task won with a plan, an outline of what it takes to win the state. 

And as for party unity, Arellano wants to lead with communication. 

“People are in this party because they believe in what we have to offer,” Arellano said. “But also, they deserve recognition, they deserve a shout out for running for office, they deserve data, they deserve support.”

Arellano prevailed over Kirby, former first vice chair and executive director of the AZGOP. 

Her time in party leadership, though featured in her run for chair, was marked with controversy, as pointed out in attack ad played at the top of the meeting. 

Kirby, as second in command to then-chair Kelli Ward, spent big on a campaign bus and an election party rather than on voter contact in the lead-up to 2022, leaving the party in difficult financial straits in the aftermath. 

She now works as the founder and president of the Arizona Coalition of School Board members. In her campaign video, Kirby championed her efforts to elect conservative school board members and noted her efforts with Latinos for Trump and Women for Trump. 

And in her remarks to the party, she hit hard on election integrity, going so far as to call for a “one day, one vote, required ID, no machines” approach to elections. 

Branch, former candidate for Maricopa County Supervisor District 4 and Superintendent of Public Instruction, called for a steadier fundraising mechanism, with increased reliance on the precinct committeemen to keep party momentum going down the ballot. 

Winn, chair of the Pima County Republican Party and former congressional candidate, called for bringing Independents into the party and strengthening fundraising. 

In her final remarks, Swoboda urged the party to find common ground in 2026. 

“I just want you to work together and go win,” Swoboda said.