He is the only Republican to lose his race for legislature in what turned out to be a great year for Republicans in Arizona. He then blamed his loss on voter fraud and claimed he had been cheated. And now, with the support of Freedom Caucus Chairman Jake Hoffman and former State Representative Liz Harris, Cory McGarr has announced that he wants to run the Arizona Republican Party and will be a candidate for Chairman at the AZGOP’s January convention.
Today, I’m proud to announce my candidacy for Chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona.
Thanks to our Party’s incredible grassroots and the most robust ballot chase operation in the history of the Republic, Arizona delivered a resounding victory for President @realDonaldTrump… pic.twitter.com/VWwT2KGnbx
— Cory McGarr (@CoryMcGarr) December 12, 2024
The current Chairwoman is Gina Swoboda, who is credited with leading a successful year for the Party in what was expected to be a very difficult environment. She enjoyed the support of President Trump and is expected to get it again if she decides to run for re-election.
“Give them credit, they won’t stop grifting until the Party stops them, and it is anyone’s guess if the state delegates have turned the corner on this nonsense and want to focus on winning instead.” said one GOP committeeman who expressed some disbelief that McGarr would even try to run.
McGarr ran for State House in 2022 and won a race running as a team with Justine Wadsack and Rachel Jones. Wadsack was defeated in her 2024 primary and promptly went to work campaigning against the GOP nominee Vince Leach.
McGarr and Jones won their primary this year but were soundly beaten by Democrat Kevin Volk in spite of the district’s massive 18,500 Republican voter advantage. For his part, McGarr publicly blamed his more than 5,000 vote loss on fraud, telling people that his loss was impossible unless it had been stolen.
“McGarr lost because he and Jones spend their time attacking Republicans, so it wasn’t a surprise that their own party didn’t want to vote for them.” said one Southern Arizona GOP activist who supported both Jones and McGarr in 2022 but left his ballot blank in their race in 2024. “They told me they didn’t want my vote so they didn’t get it. Every other Republican got it though, and they all won.”
“It isn’t a joke and people who care about the Party need to take it very seriously,” opined a GOP observer who plans on being a State Committeeman in January, “Hoffman and Harris are the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman and they want control of everything. McGarr is their front man, but based on how obedient he was to Hoffman while in the Legislature he’s a great choice for them. He’ll turn the Party over to them in exchange for the title and they’ll have what they want. Take this seriously!”
McGarr may also be contemplating a run for State Senate against Vince Leach. His X banner already has his State Senate candidacy boldly featured.