Veteran GOP operative declares swing state's party 'functionally doesn't even exist' now

A veteran Arizona operative who helped launch John McCain’s Senate career says the state’s Republican Party has been hollowed out by MAGA, and the polls in this year’s governor’s race suggest he may have a point.

“I don’t know that a moderate Republican exists anymore,” Chuck Coughlin, who runs the polling firm HighGround, told MS NOW. “You know, the party’s been consumed by MAGA and the party functionally doesn’t even exist anymore out here because the party is run by Turning Point.”

Coughlin’s firm found Rep. Andy Biggs, the Trump-endorsed former House Freedom Caucus chair, winning only about 71 percent of Republicans against Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. He trails among independents by more than 37 points.

That poll had Hobbs up by nearly 17 points, though HighGround has done work for a group funding ads attacking Biggs. A separate Equis Research survey showed Hobbs ahead by about 7 points, with roughly 1 in 10 of Trump’s 2024 voters backing her.

Turning Point, the conservative group that now dominates Arizona’s GOP, has poured $18 million into a media blitz to rescue Biggs after Hobbs’ campaign outspent his by about $12 million. Trump also flew to Bullhead City this month to rally for him.

Republicans have stacked their ticket with 2020 election deniers. Biggs backed efforts to overturn Biden’s win, voted to reject Arizona’s electors hours after the Jan. 6 attack, and defied a subpoena from the House committee that investigated it. He recently declined to say whether Biden legitimately won.

The party’s secretary of state nominee, Alex Kolodin, was put on probation by the State Bar of Arizona over his role in the Sidney Powell-crafted “Kraken” lawsuit. Attorney general nominee Warren Petersen handed the FBI records from the GOP’s 2020 Maricopa County audit after a federal grand jury subpoena in March.

If all three win, they’d be the officials who certify Arizona’s 2028 presidential results.

Some lifelong Republicans have already left. Hobbs’ running mate, former Mesa Mayor John Giles, is now an independent who spoke for Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic convention.

“I do feel like the Republican Party has changed, in particular, in not positive ways over the last few years, and it’s kind of forced me to leave,” Giles told MS NOW.

Arizona Republicans have tried this before. In 2022, they nominated election deniers Kari Lake, Mark Finchem and Abe Hamadeh for the same three offices, and all three lost.

Biggs has laughed off Hobbs’ attacks and said he’d be “happy to certify” this year’s results. His campaign did not respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment.