Mark Lamb won the GOP primary on Tuesday evening to fill the seat being vacated by Andy Biggs in Arizona’s fifth congressional district. The result puts the Pinal County sheriff on the path to the November race for one of Arizona’s most reliably Republican House seats.
In a campaign video, Lamb cast his run in family terms, saying, "That’s why I’m running for Congress. We gotta make sure our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren have the same freedoms that we have." He also framed the race around "God, family freedom," linking that message to his pitch for the seat.
Arizona’s fifth district
The district leaned heavily Republican before this primary, and it became even more Republican after redistricting in 2022. That leaves the winner of the GOP primary in a strong position entering November, even though the general-election matchup is not spelled out here.
Biggs had already carried the seat in 2024 by a 60.4% to 39.6% margin over Katrina Schaffner. He then announced last year that he would run for governor, opening the congressional race Lamb just won.
Lamb and Biggs in Arizona
Lamb has echoed many of Biggs’ priorities. In another campaign video, he said, "The Joe Biden administration came in, and immediately, overnight, we started seeing hundreds of thousands of people — the majority of these men were military-age men from all over the world. Many of them didn’t love America."
He added, "We stood by as our government not only allowed them to come in but rolled out the red carpet for people that broke our law." Biggs, who was one of Donald Trump’s most prominent backers in office, had said in a press release, "Arizona has a bright future, but we will need strong leadership to reach its full potential."
Mark Lamb scrutiny
The campaign also carried a complication: earlier this year, an Arizona investigation found that Lamb allegedly had a track record of sending sexual images to women outside of his marriage. That allegation sat alongside a primary win that now moves him toward the November ballot in a seat Republicans have held comfortably.
How many votes Lamb received and who his opponents were is not stated, but the primary result gives him the nomination heading into the fall campaign.
