By contrast, her likely primary rival, uber-conservative Congressman Andy Biggs, announced to thunderous applause that he would be seeking his party's nod to challenge Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs's reelection bid.
Wearing red-white-and-blue Crocs and sporting a mane of long, gray hair that he joked he wouldn't cut until "Congress cuts spending," Biggs, 66, told the audience of nearly 1,800 Republican state committee members that the public's response to a recent "statement of interest" in running for governor that he recently filed with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office had been "overwhelming."
He told them that his wife was with him and that they wanted to know if his fellow Republicans thought he should run against "our crazy governor." The crowd roared its approval.
"So, I have a little thing I'm going to tell you: We are — I am — jumping in," he said to continued applause. "It is now time to make Arizona great again."
An anti-immigrant stalwart who recently proposed changing the 14th Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship, Biggs was also reportedly one of six lawmakers who sought a pardon from Trump for any accusations against him arising from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, though Biggs has denied asking for a pardon.
A former president of the Arizona State Senate, Biggs was elected to Congress in 2016 to represent much of the East Valley. He has also served as chair of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, the lower chamber's extreme, far-right voting bloc.
As he was headed to the podium, New Times buttonholed Biggs to ask him why he'd want to swap a safe seat in Congress to run for governor.
"I'm a big believer the country is going to be saved by the states," he said. He added that during his nearly 10 years in Congress there had "been moments of fun but moments of pain."
The big role of personal fortunes in the state's GOP field
Biggs' political life has been facilitated in part by winning the American Family Sweepstakes in 1993, which came with a $10 million reward, allowing the University of Arizona law grad to avoid practicing law for a living. Such abundant fortune has not made him a fan of the poor. While serving in the state legislature, he suggested that it would be a good thing to axe the state's Medicaid program, leaving those dependent on it without medical care.The congressman's paleoconservative politics are popular with red-meat-eatin' Republicans, and a new poll shows him leading the Republican pack for governor. But his views will prove a harder sale to a statewide electorate.
Taylor Robson was not present at the state committee meeting, but she did get a shout-out, in the worst possible way, from State Senator Jake Hoffman, the Republican National Committeeman from Queen Creek who has been indicted along with 17 others for his role in the so-called fake electors scheme.
Karrin Taylor Robson may have Trump's endorsement and millions of bucks to blow on a possible run for guv, but she got booed like hell at Saturday's AZ GOP committee meeting
Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
"I'd like our friends in the media to know exactly how you all felt about the idea of Karrin Taylor Robson being our next governor," he said, egging the crowd on. A torrent of boos filled the room. They got louder still when Hoffman said, "I can't hear you!"
When Hoffman asked the audience what they thought of "the great and fearless Andy Biggs" as the next governor, the church shook like a high school football stadium on Friday night. Hoffman led the faithful in a chant of "Biggs! Biggs! Biggs!"
In 2022, Robson spent more than $18 million in the GOP primary for governor, much of it her own cash, only to come in second to Kari Lake, who at the time had Trump's endorsement. Taylor Robson, widely viewed as a traditional, country club Republican, is married to mega-developer and Valley moneybags Edward J. Robson.
Robson, a major contributor to Republican causes, has donated $17,400 to Trump's presidential campaigns since 2016, according to OpenSecrets.
The million-dollar question: Who best to challenge Hobbs?
At a December rally in Phoenix, Trump encouraged Taylor Robson to throw her hat in the ring for governor, saying she had his support. She has yet to file a statement of interest with the Secretary of State's office, but Republican insiders have already formed a PAC to assist her potential candidacy. The local pundit class thinks Taylor Robson has a better shot at taking out Katie Hobbs than a MAGA ideologue like Biggs, despite many Republicans seeing Taylor Robson as a "RiNO," or Republican in name only.
As for being booed at the annual state committee meeting, she's in ironic company there. One year ago, Lake was booed and heckled by state committeemen at the same venue, following a scandal in which she secretly recorded conversations with former state party chair Jeff DeWit. When those recordings were released, DeWit resigned.
Trump's hand-picked replacement, Gina Swoboda, was elected to take over from DeWit. On Saturday, Swoboda was re-elected 978 to 758, beating back a challenge by former state Rep. Cory McGarr, who had the backing of Hoffman and others connected to Turning Point USA, the conservative youth group.
Until recently, Turning Point USA had practically taken over the state GOP, supporting Kelli Ward, another fake elector, as chair, and backing Lake's candidacies to the hilt. Ward's term as chair ended in January 2023, when DeWit took over.
Lake's political career foundered in the general election last year when she lost her hapless senate race to Ruben Gallego. In the recordings Lake leaked, DeWit had encouraged her to take a cycle off and not run for Senate, which seems like good advice in hindsight.
The battle for the state party still goes through Turning Point USA
Though Turning Point remains popular with the Republican base, the state party seems to be signaling that it's time to move on, having recently ending a relationship with a Turning Point-connected company and angering Turning Point minions as a result. Swoboda — whom many credit for pulling the state party out of the red, making gains in the legislature and helping to deliver Arizona to Trump in 2024 — seemed to be sending a message to the Turning Point crowd in her remarks before the vote on her chairmanship.
"This party belongs to you," Swoboda told them. "And as long as I'm in this chair, no other person or PAC or consultant is going to take away the power from the state committeemen and the grassroots."
Asked what this means for Turning Point, one party bigwig, who asked not to be named, told New Times: "That they need to stay in their lane. They can't muscle their way in by bullying the party."
Swoboda was gracious after her win. When asked about the powerful MAGA organization, she declined to take a swipe at Turning Point, calling it "a wonderful third-party working group."
Republican activist Merissa Hamilton feels like Saturday's events were "pretty swampy"
Stephen Lemons
Hamilton, who ran for mayor of Phoenix in 2020 as a nonpartisan candidate, took umbrage at what she saw as Swoboda's veiled swipe at Turning Point, lamenting recent developments in the party.
"I don't think the party is a grassroots party," she told New Times. "I think it's becoming top-down and pretty swampy, promoting the consulting class rather than utilizing the grassroots."
As an aside, it's worth noting that Turning Point, during its reign, severely restricted press access to AZ GOP meetings, a reversal from the days when longtime AZ GOP Sergeant at Arms, Alberto Gutier, allowed the press to roam the state meeting and talk freely with politicians, party members and activists.
Gutier, who passed away in November at age 84, would have been heartened at Swoboda's reversal on press access.
At the event on Saturday, it seemed like old times, save for Gutier's absence.
