(The Center Square)—Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs started collecting signatures to be on the 2026 Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary ballot.
His nominating petition will need to hit a certain threshold of signatures in order for his name to appear on the ballot. Earlier this week, he announced he was going to contemplate the “weighty decision” after filing an official statement of interest with the Secretary of State’s office.
“I am collecting the signatures required to get on the ballot for Governor of Arizona, and I would be grateful for your support,” he tweeted Thursday with a link to his campaign website donning a logo for the race.
No other major candidates have entered the race yet. Karrin Taylor Robson, who President Donald Trump said in a December speech in Phoenix that he would support, has yet to make a public decision on whether she’ll jump into the race. Biggs is also closely allied with the president and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and he was one of the Republicans who led the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Whoever wins the primary will likely take on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake in 2022. In 2026, the race is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country.
Biggs’ decision to run opens the door for a hotly competitive primary in his East Valley congressional seat, as the Republican won with over 60% of the vote in his district in November. Former State Rep. Travis Grantham announced he filed a statement of interest for the seat earlier this week.
“Today I filed a Statement of Interest to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District. The East Valley deserves continued strong, experienced and conservative leadership should Congressman Biggs depart for statewide office,” the former Republican lawmaker said in an X post.
“I look forward to the coming months, meeting with our citizenry and seeing what the future holds for this wonderful district,” he added.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
