Source: Politics<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a last-minute mission to shore up his longtime personal friend in a battleground Arizona district.<\/p>\n
GOP groups have spent more than $22 million to boost Jay Feely against Democrat Amish Shah, with much of that spending coming in the final weeks of the race. The president has known Feely for decades as a friend and golf partner, and he sees the former Arizona Cardinals kicker as a formidable candidate, according to two Trump officials familiar with their relationship, who were granted anonymity to share details about it.<\/p>\n
The ferocious support for Feely appears to mark a rare instance of personal friendship and loyalty shaping political strategy in the close of the midterm campaign \u2014 especially after Trump personally intervened to clear a pathway for Feely to clinch the nomination. Trump and his allies have largely taken an unsentimental approach to political spending, including backing away from high-profile Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina where Trump loyalists are on the ballot.<\/p>\n
Trump, in public and private, maneuvered other Republicans out of the way so Feely could switch races and defend one of the premier battleground districts in the country, according to the two Trump officials.<\/p>\n
Still, Feely has been forced to navigate Trump\u2019s deep unpopularity on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
Shah has been working to tie Feely to Trump in a flurry of ads, in the district where the president has an approval rating around negative 13 points, according to Democratic internal polling viewed by POLITICO.<\/p>\n
Feely, a star GOP recruit, also attended a meeting<\/a> with Speaker Mike Johnson and tech billionaire Elon Musk in Texas this August as top Republicans worked to secure Musk\u2019s help in defending the House GOP majority alongside the Senate, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting, granted anonymity to share private details.<\/p>\n Musk has donated $20 million to the top House GOP super PAC, though he\u2019s focused much of his attention this midterms season on the Texas Senate race.<\/p>\n The Trump team appears to be taking a pragmatic view of Feely\u2019s campaign, giving him some room to distance himself from the White House \u2014 even if that means avoiding the president\u2019s rallies and breaking with him on other matters, according to the two Trump officials and two other people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n Feely posted on social media this week: \u201cI will stand up to anyone including the president if it is not in the best interest of this district and this state.\u201d He and another battleground Arizona Republican, Rep. Juan Ciscomani, didn\u2019t attend a rally Trump held in their state Oct. 14.<\/p>\n Brian Seitchik, Feely\u2019s general consultant and a former 2016 and 2020 Trump campaign staffer, would only say Feely “regrettably could not attend\u201d the event.<\/p>\n Feely\u2019s run is a rare case this cycle where the Republican candidate is a well-known figure in his own right \u2014 and who has been personal friends with Trump for decades. He\u2019s running in a wealthy GOP-held district that includes Scottsdale and part of the Phoenix suburbs that the president only narrowly won in 2024 and Democrats are eager to flip. Trump officials are keenly aware if they lose the seat, Democrats could hold it for several elections to come.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth parties know how important the seat is,\u201d Feely told POLITICO at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas this September. \u201cIt’ll be one of three to five seats in the country that’ll determine who wins the House,\u201d he said, predicting it would \u201cprobably be the most expensive race in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI’m honored to have a relationship with President Trump for the last two decades and to have his support at the same time,\u201d Feely added at the time.<\/p>\n Internal polling on both sides<\/a> show Feely locked in a tossup race against Shah, who was a physician with the New York Jets during Feely\u2019s tenure on that team.<\/p>\n Feely noted the importance of winning over independent voters in the district. That\u2019s an even harder task now given the growing unpopularity of the war in Iran and high fuel prices hitting voters.<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a race that\u2019s going to come down to potentially hundreds of votes, Jay is doing the hard work required to win this battleground seat,\u201d Seitchik, Feely\u2019s general consultant, said.<\/p>\n Trump and Feely, who went on to have a career in broadcasting, have known each other for several decades. They\u2019ve golfed together in recent years: Feely posted a photo of himself with Trump<\/a> in August of 2020 after a round of golf with the president at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. \u201cWhat an epic day!!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Trump-aligned super PACs have poured north of $9 million into the race to boost Feely on the airwaves against Shah. The top House GOP super PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, is highly focused on defending the seat and has also dropped nearly $7 million on the race. And the National Republican Congressional Campaign has spent $2.6 million on coordinated ad buys with Feely\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n Feely was originally running in the redder 5th District to replace Andy Biggs, who is now competing to be the state\u2019s next governor. But Trump urged Feely to switch races to the battleground 1st District after retiring GOP Rep. David Schweikert announced he would also run for governor.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s encouragement helped draw Feely into a GOP primary fight with Gina Swoboda, a longtime Trump ally and former state party chair. The president initially expressed support for both Feely and Swoboda, but soon he posted only in support of his personal friend<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI know Jay well, and he is a TOTAL WINNER, on and off the field!\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n