As the general election draws nearer by the day, Arizona Republican voters have given a resounding answer for their gubernatorial pick this week.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) emerged victorious in Tuesday’s Republican primary for Arizona governor, defeating fellow U.S. Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.).

'No matter what your political party is or your background, you deserve a better leader than Katie Hobbs.'

With 84% of the vote counted, Biggs secured a commanding 73.4% of the share, while Schweikert trailed with 14.7%.

In a statement posted to X, Biggs wrote that he was “deeply honored” by the nomination.

“This campaign has been driven by our grassroots supporters from the day we launched in January 2025 with a clear mission of Restoring the American Dream in our great state,” he said.

“Our goal has always been to unite the Republican Party and we’ve done that as much as any nominee in recent memory,” he continued.

Turning his attention to the general election, Biggs took aim at his opponent, incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“As we advance to the General Election, I want to make sure every Arizonan knows this: No matter what your political party is or your background, you deserve a better leader than Katie Hobbs,” he said.

The Republican Governors Association congratulated Biggs on his nomination, writing, “While Katie Hobbs has delivered higher costs and fewer opportunities, Andy Biggs is ready to cut taxes, grow the economy, secure the border, and get Arizona back on track.”

According to the candidates’ most recent campaign finance reports, Hobbs holds a cash-on-hand advantage, with nearly $2 million compared to Biggs’ roughly $1.3 million.

Hobbs ran uncontested in the Democratic primary. In the 2022 gubernatorial election, she narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake by less than one percentage point.

President Donald Trump endorsed Biggs for governor in April 2025, a backing the congressman leaned heavily into throughout his primary campaign, focusing on border security and lowering taxes.

Biggs also positioned himself as someone who can work across the political aisle, telling USA Today, “I may be conservative, but I’ve also shown that even when you’re conservative, if you look to collaborate, you can find points and ways to collaborate with even people who fundamentally disagree with you on other things.”

More than a third of Arizona voters are not registered with either major party.

Before his passing, the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was a public supporter of Biggs, saying at the end of May 2025 during a Turning Point Action rally, “We need to lock down Arizona, and doing that starts with taking down Katie Hobbs and winning back the governor’s mansion. And nobody is better equipped to do that than Rep. Andy Biggs."

Trump carried Arizona by 5.5 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, the largest margin among the seven swing states. Still, Democrats have continued to perform well statewide, holding both U.S. Senate seats as well as the offices of attorney general and secretary of state.

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Republicans break fundraising records as midterms approach

Republicans are breaking fundraising records with just months left before the midterms.

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced Monday that it raised $17.6 million in June alone. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ended June with more cash on hand than Republicans in the four previous election cycles.

‘Democrats are still holding clown show socialist auditions for who gets to lose in November.’

The NRCC is enjoying its best fundraising pace ever in an election year with $82.6 million raised in 2026 so far. With the DCCC trailing $13.7 million behind, it’s the largest Republican cash-on-hand lead by June for any election year on record.

The DCCC did not respond to a request for comment.

It also marks the first time since 2016 that the NRCC has more cash on hand than the DCCC at this point in the election cycle. Having more cash on hand at this point in the cycle allows Republicans to secure television advertising space and pump more money into competitive districts in the final stretch.

“Republicans are building a campaign machine to win, while Democrats are still holding clown show socialist auditions for who gets to lose in November,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement to Blaze News. “We have deeper pockets, a more favorable map, stronger candidates, and the better message to grow the House majority.”

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

It’s not just the NRCC that’s setting records. The entire Republican ecosystem is finding fundraising success headed into November.

The Republican National Committee ended June with $128.5 million in its war chest. That’s the largest end-of-month stockpile since the RNC’s inception.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) broke GOP leader records, raking in $135 million in this election cycle. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) further contributed $55 million to GOP fundraising efforts, the Washington Examiner reported. Scalise raised $9 million between April and June.

"While Democrats lunge further into disarray and to the far left, House Republicans are united, well-funded, and on offense to win the midterms,” Johnson said in a press release announcing his numbers. “With less than four months to go, we continue to expose the contrast for America before voters this fall — a choice between Republicans’ common sense and Democrats’ embrace of crazy and communism.”

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Vance’s path to 2028 just got much more complicated

Until late 2025, the Republican Party appeared likely to carry the MAGA coalition more or less intact into the 2028 presidential election. No successor can reproduce Trump’s personality or political style. But the coalition he assembled — working-class voters, growing numbers of Latinos and other former Democrats, and disaffected liberals such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard — seemed durable.

JD Vance also appeared ready to clear the field. Marco Rubio, the only other plausible heir with national support, said just a few months ago that he would back Vance in 2028 if the vice president ran. The nomination looked less like a contest than a succession plan.

Much of the base may share Vance’s instincts, but the right is far from unanimous. His victory in an open contest cannot be assumed.

When I wrote my book, “JD Vance and the Future of the Republican Party,” the first sustained examination of Vance’s political thought and his place in the post-Trump GOP, that outcome seemed nearly certain. Vance would declare around the 2026 midterms. Rubio would endorse him. A few marginal candidates might enter, but none would reach double digits.

That scenario remains possible. It is no longer inevitable.

Two related developments have changed the equation: the fight over the U.S.-Israel relationship on the right and the war in Iran.

The first does not implicate Vance directly, but it has fractured the political world he must lead. Far-right podcasters and pundits have fixated on Israel and Jews for years. The dispute moved from the fringes toward the center when Tucker Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes on his podcast in October 2025, one month after Charlie Kirk — one of the right’s most effective coalition builders and gatekeepers — was assassinated. Influential voices soon moved beyond debating the wisdom and limits of the U.S.-Israel alliance to entertaining conspiratorial claims that Jews themselves threatened America.

The conservative movement has never been intellectually uniform. Libertarians, social conservatives, anti-communist liberals, nationalists, and other factions have long competed under the Republican tent. But the past nine months have produced something more corrosive. Positions on Israel, American Jews, and even individual media personalities have become loyalty tests. Conservatives increasingly sort themselves into camps and excommunicate dissenters.

Every presidential nominee must unite competing factions. Vance faces an unusual version of that task because he entered politics through the world of conservative intellectuals, think tanks, and media. He has friends and allies across rival camps. Preserving those relationships without appearing captive to any of them may become one of his hardest political tests.

Nathan Howard/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

The war in Iran has made that test harder. Trump’s coalition has always included incompatible foreign-policy factions: George W. Bush-era interventionists, advocates of a restrained and more hemispheric strategy, and hard-line isolationists. The alliance held as long as the administration avoided wars that lacked a clear connection to the American interest.

Iran forced the disagreement into the open. Will the Republican Party continue military campaigns in the Middle East, or will it reserve force for direct threats to the United States? Republicans answer that question very differently, and the war has split the party. Any 2028 nominee will have to navigate the divide.

Vance is no isolationist, but his instincts favor restraint. He is also more willing than many senior Republicans to question the scope of U.S. commitments to Israel. Those positions may appeal to much of the base while alarming interventionists, pro-Israel conservatives, and establishment donors.

Can Vance maintain relationships with controversial figures such as Carlson, reconsider American commitments in the Middle East, and still hold the Republican coalition together? A competitive 2028 primary would force those questions into the open. Much of the base may share Vance’s instincts, but the right is far from unanimous. His victory in an open contest cannot be assumed.

Rubio remains the likeliest challenger. He has said he will not oppose Vance if the vice president runs, but supporters continue to promote the popular secretary of state as a candidate. Rubio’s greater acceptability to establishment Republicans and his more interventionist foreign policy would turn the primary into a direct contest over the party’s future. He could expose every fault line Vance must bridge.

One factor may matter more than all the others: Trump’s endorsement.

Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images

After the Iran war, Vance is less likely to coast through a genuinely open primary, especially if Rubio changes his mind. But Republicans may never receive an open primary. Trump still commands the party he reshaped, relishes the role of kingmaker, and will want to choose his successor.

An unequivocal Trump endorsement of Vance could end the contest before it begins. Other candidates could run, but they would struggle against a Trump-Vance succession. If Trump chooses Vance, the vice president may become the 2028 nominee by anointing rather than competition.

Trump has spoken more than once about the race to succeed him. Once he speaks definitively, the question may no longer be whether Vance can win the Republican primary. It may be whether the party is willing to hold one.

If Trump names Vance, he will likely become the future of the Republican Party. Trump will decide whether the party gets a primary or an anointing.

House vote exposes Democrat rift over Israel aid as Massie remains a party of one

Support for Israel is seemingly becoming a partisan issue in Congress.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected an amendment that would have eliminated $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel. But the vote count told its own story: Nearly half the Democratic Caucus broke from party leadership to support it, while Republicans stayed almost entirely unified against it.

'They're the biggest welfare recipient of the United States and have been for many years.'

The amendment to the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for 2027, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), would have barred any funds in the bill from being spent on Israel.

Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) laid out his position in a "Dear Colleague" letter: He would vote no because the amendment was "overly broad," warning it would also cut off funding for humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, and embassy operations and make it harder to counter Hamas and Hezbollah.

House Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.) broke with Jeffries publicly. In her statement, she agreed that the amendment was "overly broad" and called it "stunts from congressional Republicans who would rather score cheap political points than lead" — but reached the opposite conclusion.

"However, it is clear that the status quo is not tenable. We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. law, interests, and values," Clark said. "The Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard. I will be voting yes ... because I believe we must change course."

ierney L. Cross/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In the end, 103 Democrats joined Massie in voting yes — including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said she remains "committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and supportive of a two-state solution," but that the amendment "presents an unfortunate choice to the House."

Ninety-eight Democrats joined 215 Republicans in voting no; Massie, who recently lost his House seat in the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, was the only Republican in favor. The measure failed 104-314.

In the floor debate ahead of the vote, Massie argued that the money would be better spent at home — on roads, bridges, and homeless veterans — before calling Israel "the biggest welfare recipient of the United States," citing $310 billion in inflation-adjusted aid received over the years from American taxpayers.

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

"Israel has the strongest economy in the Middle East," he said. "Their debt per GDP is in much better shape than ours. They don't need our money."

Then he circled back to the word himself: "In fact, they've claimed recently they want to get off of the welfare, but I'm concerned that the other funding mechanisms they're talking about — commingling our technology and supply chains — will have even less transparency than what's going on here today."

Massie was careful to frame the measure as part of his broader principle: "I'm opposed to all foreign aid. I didn't pick on Israel here. I've offered an amendment to defund Egypt and also to defund the aid to Jordan … but I am particularly concerned this year about the foreign aid to Israel."

That concern, he said, came down to the war itself: “American taxpayers should not be conscripted into funding the military adventures of Israel," he said, urging the adoption of his amendment.

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Proof the US Just Passed the Point of No Return | Michael Malice

One line from Tucker Carlson sparks political firestorm for the GOP

Reactions have come pouring in from defenders and detractors alike after Tucker Carlson made a shocking pronouncement that may well serve as a bellwether for the future of the Republican Party.

On a recent podcast appearance, Carlson, who has been vocal about his misgivings about the current direction of the GOP, drew a hard line in the sand when asked about his ongoing support for the Republicans.

'And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out.'

Asked about the war in Iran, which became a wedge issue among Republicans long before the end of February, Carlson argued that supporting the current conduct of the Trump administration has become untenable because Israel's undue influence: "How could I or any American voter support a political party that's not loyal to the United States? That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens?"

"I voted Republican my entire life. I worked at Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. I've been a consistent defender ... of the Republican Party — I mean, very consistent defender," Carlson explained. "But there's no defending this because it's immoral, and it's exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation. And they're not doing that. So no, I'm out."

"And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out," he added.

Some leaders attacked Carlson's statements, accusing him of hating America. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for example, wrote: "This has been obvious for some time. @TuckerCarlson HATES: Trump[,] Republicans[,] Israel[,] Christian Zionists[,] YOU[.] Tucker loves: Qatar[,] The Ayatollah[,] Antisemite crackpots[,] Shirtless Putin[,] Sharia law."

It isn't clear how Carlson's disagreements with the conduct of the Republican Party make him a lover of "Shirtless Putin."

However, Carlson's message seemed to resonate with others.

"Sadly the GOP will lose hundreds of thousands of voters in the mid-term election because of the total betrayals that have occurred[.] Turn out will drop significantly[.] @TuckerCarlson aligned voters like myself & millions of others are disappointed by the America Last foreign policy & massive amounts of foreign 'legal' labor coming in still," Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini wrote.

Marjorie Taylor Greene joined the fray, adding that millions of people like Tucker Carlson are tired of the "America LAST" politics in the party today:

Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party. There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party.

Michael Knowles, on the other hand, made an attempt to get people to look past the "infighting": "I'm just pointing out: while the Right does all this infighting, the Left is waiting for the Right to destroy itself so they can bring back transing kids, racial politics, government suppression."

"I am imploring the American Right: please keep some perspective," Knowles added.

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Vance Takes Center Stage In White House Push To Protect GOP Majority

VP Takes Center Stage In White House Push To Protect GOP Majority

Charlie Kirk’s favorite wins Republican primary for Arizona governor

Republicans break fundraising records as midterms approach

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Proof the US Just Passed the Point of No Return | Michael Malice

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We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.