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The Shah of Scottsdale

The D.C.C.C. guessed wrong again in Arizona’s toss-up 1st district, with Amish Shah beating the party’s handpicked moderate Marlene Gálan-Woods. Meanwhile, a documentary on E. Jean Carroll debuts Friday… without a distributor.

Amish Shah
Amish Shah speaks during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, November 2024. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Marianna Sotomayor
&
Leigh Ann Caldwell
July 23, 2026

The results are in for Arizona’s competitive 1st congressional district, and they did not go the way the D.C.C.C had wanted. Amish Shah, a physician and former state legislator, became the Democratic nominee—an outcome the party was hoping to avoid after he underperformed Vice President Kamala Harris and lost to Republican Rep. David Schweikert in 2024 by four points. (Schweikert didn’t seek reelection this year, and instead chose to run for governor—a bid he lost, leaving Arizona’s 1st as one of the purest toss-ups in the country.)