Voters in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District are looking at something of a rematch in their Democratic primary. Unlike in 2024, when House Democrats’ campaign arm let the race play out, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee now has a clear preference.
The group’s pick in the primary is Marlene Galán-Woods, a former broadcast journalist who has never held public office, was registered as a Republican until 2018 and came in third when she ran in 2024. On Tuesday, she’ll face off against several Democrats, including Amish Shah, an emergency-room physician and former state legislator who beat her in the primary in 2024 and competed in the general election with the DCCC’s backing.
Shah narrowly lost to Republican Rep. David Schweikert in 2024. This year, the DCCC hopes Democrats in the district will choose not to give Shah a do-over, but to go in a new direction with Galán-Woods. While the DCCC put Shah on its Red to Blue list in the 2024 general election but did not intervene in that year’s primary, now it’s Galán-Woods who’s in the DCCC’s Red to Blue program.
“She’s on paper a better fit, but you’re dealing with the rather uncomfortable question that she already lost a primary to him,” said a Democratic strategist and DCCC alum who has worked on previous races in the district. “So, was it a resource problem? Was there something else that has changed? No doubt that DCCC has analyzed this, weighed all of this, and still come to the conclusion that intervention enhances their odds of picking up a seat.”
The candidates have few ideological differences and are running in the country’s only open toss-up seat, since Schweikert is running for governor. The Democratic race is one of several primaries the DCCC has weighed in on, along with contests in Pennsylvania and Texas battleground districts.
This type of intervention in competitive primaries has prompted backlash from some corners of the party, who say the committee should let voters decide rather than putting its thumb on the scale.
“It’s unfair because out of respect to him for winning such a competitive 2024 primary, I think they should have either stayed out or at least waited until after the primary,” said Arizona state Sen. Flavio Bravo, who endorsed Shah.
So far this year, most of the DCCC’s picks have succeeded in their primary races, but two candidates have lost: state Sen. Joe Baldacci in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains in California’s 22nd Congressional District. Those losses left some Democrats questioning the committee’s use of resources and cheering the defeat of the establishment.
This Arizona race has become another test for the DCCC in a primary that lacks the progressive-versus-pragmatic dynamic that has defined other races.
“Unless there is a clear and obvious reason, the DCCC should not intervene in Democratic primaries, including the race in AZ-01,” said Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) in a statement to NOTUS. “These resources should be focused on flipping this seat in November and winning back the House majority.”
Shah was frustrated about the DCCC’s decision to weigh in.
“I think they got it wrong,” he told NOTUS. “I think the Democratic Party voters do not want to see meddling from D.C. here in our district.”
If he pulls off a win, he said he will “work with anybody and everybody, including the DCCC, to make sure that we do everything we can to stop this guy in the White House.”
The DCCC determined that Galán-Woods has “undeniable momentum, a broad coalition, and strong fundraising,” a spokesperson said.
“This designation signifies that we believe this candidate — and this campaign — are the one best positioned to flip the Republican-held district,” the spokesperson said.
Galán-Woods has accumulated support from other major players in the party. She received a powerful endorsement from Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly in the final days before the primary. She also has the backing of several national Democratic groups including Planned Parenthood Action Fund, EMILYs List, the Bench and BOLD PAC.
She’s proved herself to be an effective fundraiser, raising about $2.1 million as of July 1, according to Federal Election Commission filings, compared to Shah’s $1.3 million. She also has allies spending mountains of money on her behalf, far outpacing the spending on Shah’s behalf.
Galán-Woods said she decided to run again because Shah, who lost the general election by 4 percentage points, underperformed Kamala Harris and Ruben Gallego in 2024’s presidential and Senate contests.
When asked about the DCCC’s backing, Galán-Woods said she’s most proud of her local backing.
“I’m happy to have the support, but I’ll be honest with you, here in the district, people aren’t talking about it,” she said. “People are talking about the issues that keep them up at night, and most importantly, how do we win? How do we win in November?”
There’s been limited polling in the primary. HighGround, a public affairs firm that has worked on Republican campaigns, showed Shah up by 22 percentage points in a February poll. Most voters in the district are registered Republicans, but voters who did not select a party at all outnumber Democrats.
“This district is a really good bellwether for how the country’s going,” said Eric Chalmers, a Democratic strategist in Arizona not involved in the race. “The independents who live in this district, they went one way for three cycles voting for Dems, and then last cycle, it was almost a complete 180.”
Some Democrats see Galán-Woods — who grew up in a Republican household with parents who emigrated from Cuba and who is the widow of Grant Woods, the former Republican state attorney general and chief of staff to John McCain — as just the right kind of Democrat to win over independents.
“The appeal of a different candidate who’s got a lot of support from the business community and a lot of the ‘Republican-lites’ or kind of McCain-Republican types out in CD 1, which makes up a lot of that district, led to the appeal of wanting to try Marlene,” Chalmers said.
Shah, meanwhile, is pitching himself as an experienced politician. He served in the statehouse for three terms and ran in the general election before, while Galán-Woods lacks public office experience.
He is known for his shoeleather campaign style and touts that he’s knocked on 28,000 doors in the district. But Arizona strategists said he will have to scale it up.
“On paper he’s just a normie Democrat with a really interesting, compelling background and compelling voice,” said DJ Quinlan, a Democratic strategist in Arizona not working on the race. “In practice on the campaign trail, he has a number of unique views.”
Quinlan said one of Shah’s challenges is his apparent dislike of negative campaigning and TV ads.
“He seems to have an aversion to the sort of campaign tactics that you need to be successful as you scale from a legislative race to a congressional race,” he said.
Shah, however, calls that a mischaracterization. He pointed to his 2024 fundraising numbers and television ads to show that his last campaign did put up a congressional-level fight. Door-knocking helps the campaign keep an ear to the ground, he said.
“We understood in 2024 that there’s no way that you could run a door-knocking campaign over the course of six or eight weeks directed at 500,000 people,” Shah said. “That was nowhere in my arguments. We ran a mass communication campaign that involved mailers, that involved TV ads, that involved digital, all at the direction of the DCCC during that 2024 cycle.”
The primary’s winner will advance to face either former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik, business executive John Trobough, or the Trump-endorsed former NFL kicker Jay Feely.
