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Since hopping into the race for the seat Rep. David Schweikert will be abandoning in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, former NFL kicker Jay Feely has quickly become a frontrunner. He’s also picked up an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Notably not endorsed by Trump is Joseph Chaplik, a far-right former state lawmaker who is challenging Feely in the primary. Chaplik’s campaign has struggled to gain traction against Feely’s money machine. Earlier this month, amid that fight for relevancy, Chaplik decided to get blatantly racist.
On May 7, Chaplik responded to a social media post from Feely, who’d slammed Chaplik for missing votes as a lawmaker at the Arizona Legislature and for skipping a primary debate in the race. Chaplik, who is a member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, did that by taking aim at Feely… and at people from Haiti.
“I’ve made life better for every citizen in CD1 serving you for 6 years in the state house,” Chaplik wrote on social media. “Jay Feely has only missed field goals to the left….And imported Haitians.”
The comment echoed racist conspiracy theories spread in 2024 by Trump and then-vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were killing and eating neighborhood pets. The story never had any validity, but it did set off a wave of demonization against people from the small, poor and primarily Black island nation.
Feely, who did not respond to a request for comment from Phoenix New Times, took Chaplik’s tweet personally. Feely has a strong connection to Haiti, having done church mission work there after it was rocked by an earthquake in 2010. Feely has also helped to bring some of the people he met there into the U.S. — legally — and set them up with non-governmental organizations for support.
In a lengthy 11-post thread on X, Feely called Chaplik’s comment “racist.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of the two young men that we brought into our family,” Feely added, going on to write that “for @JosephChaplik to be so derogatory and racist toward this amazing journey tells you all you need to know. He is not worthy of representing Arizona in Congress.”
Feely has helped two brothers — Delmonte and Marc Wedner — immigrate to the U.S. and build lives in Arizona. Delmonte was a translator whom Feely met while doing mission work in Haiti. The two became friends, and Feely sponsored his education visa so he could attend Grand Canyon University and play soccer there. During that time, Delmonte lived in Feely’s family’s home.
It’s been 12 years since Delmonte came to the U.S. He’s 34 now and a married homeowner in Arizona. He applied for citizenship, but is still going through the process of getting a green card, which he’ll need for 10 years before he can become a citizen. In an interview Feely did with Delmonte (who sported a “Feely 2026” hat) with the right-leaning Substack The State 48 News, Feely said the process of Delmonte becoming a citizen “should be easier,” adding, “They should have a much easier process to become a citizen because they’re exactly who we want here in this country.”
“You can be ardently against illegal immigration, which I am, while still loving immigrants,” Feely said during the March interview.
Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC-By-SA 2.0
Chaplik cries ‘race-baiting’
Reached by New Times, Chaplik claimed that Feely’s response was “race-baiting” and said his own post was “specifically in reference to the fact that Jay Feely personally claims to have worked with NGOs to bring Haitian migrants into this country for amnesty, but has done nothing for Arizona.” He did not say what it is about Haitians, specifically, that he has a problem with. When New Times asked Chaplik to explain how the comment was not racist, Chaplik spokesperson Ross Trumble directed New Times to a tweet Chaplik authored in response to Feely.
In the tweet, Chaplik appeared to deny the comments were racist and called Feely’s thread a “miss by lying Jay Feely,” whom he slammed for “playing the race card.” He said his original post had “NOTHING” to do with the two Wedner men and everything to do with “your history of bringing large numbers of Haitian migrants to NGOs in an attempt to get amnesty here.”
Again, eliding the question: What’s the problem with Haitians?
In his response to Feely, Chaplik cited a video of Feely on the KTAR radio show “Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos” as evidence of Feely supposedly ferrying Haitian migrants into the country. During an immigration discussion on the show, Feely said he “brings people in and actually has them live in my home,” adding that he connects people “to those NGOs that are helping them, but I believe it should be legally.” He added that he’s working with 12 people who are seeking asylum in the U.S. from Haiti.
“That’s BS,” Feely wrote in response to Chaplik, adding that the 12 people he mentioned were Delmonte’s family members, who are still in Haiti with pending asylum applications. “Exploiting their pain for your political purposes is disgusting,” Feely added.
Chaplik also cited a video interview Feely did with Right Side Broadcasting Network ahead of Trump’s April rally at Dream City Church, at which Feely was granted a speaking slot. Chaplik argued that Feely has a “history of opposing Trump on (Temporary Protected Status) for Haiti.”
In that interview, Feely was asked about the support of some Republicans in Congress for granting Haitians in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status, which protects migrants from deportation due to conditions in their home countries. The Trump administration has formally terminated the designation, but that decision is on hold as the Supreme Court weighs the issue. In the interview, Feely sidestepped the question and expressed concern over Republican “fracturing.”
“Just like the voters in my district (where I live, work and pray) I do not support amnesty for illegal immigrants,” Chaplik said in a statement to New Times. “Nor do I support uncontrolled, unvetted migrations such as the TPS program.”
Feely is also on the record as not supporting amnesty for people who came to the country illegally — a category that doesn’t include the Haitian men he’s helped or most of the Haitian migrants who enjoyed Temporary Protected Status. New Times also asked Feely’s campaign about his stance on TPS for Haitians, but he didn’t respond.
The back-and-forth with Chaplik reveals a potential fault line for Feely’s campaign, which has hewed very close to Trump on most issues. Trump and his allies have not been shy about saying blatantly racist things about Haitians and other minorities, and Chaplik’s views are probably not all that dissimilar from those of Trump’s base. Notably, when the “Haitians eat pets” story was going around — including on a billboard paid for by the Arizona Republican Party — the subject was not addressed by Feely, who was not yet running for office.
Feely found his voice when his intraparty rival took aim at him on the subject. What Feely would do if Trump were spewing anti-Haitian hate remains to be seen.
