Capitol Coup Sees MAGA Shamp Replaced With Moderate Kavanagh

June 27, 2025 ADI Staff Reporter
shamp ladd
Arizona state Sen. Janae Shamp and rancher John Ladd discuss border policy on March 22, 2024.

With Republicans in the State Senate already divided over the state’s budget and the manner in which it was negotiated with Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs instead of House Republicans, today was supposed to be the end of a long and difficult process. As expected, the Senate passed the compromise budget that was negotiated over the past several days and sent it to the Governor for her signature. Even the Senate Republican’s X account was tired, posting “We were crawling across the finish line at this point, but we made it!” Unexpectedly, Senate Republicans also held an organizational meeting and voted to replace Majority Leader Janae Shamp with State Senator John Kavanaugh.

Shamp is in her third year in the legislature and is popular among the grassroots for her strong support of the MAGA and MAHA movements. She was notably endorsed in her campaign by President Donald Trump and has held high profile events and hearings on everything from election reform to healthcare fraud to COVID-19 vaccinations and more.

Kavanagh has bounced between the State House and State Senate for nearly two decades and is currently in his 19th year in the legislature. He was the point man for Senate President Warren Peterson when it came to negotiating the state budget with Governor Hobbs, and he led efforts on the floor to pass the budgets over the objections of a number of Republicans.

“This is completely wild,” said one lobbyist who was watching the events of the day at the Capitol, “I think everyone expected the Senate to just get done and go home and Petersen actually took Shamp’s head off on the way!”

“Everyone knows it was Shamp versus [State Senator TJ] Shope for Senate President next November, and this was Petersen trying to give Shope an early advantage.” opined one East Valley GOP operative. “But these stunts have a way of backfiring, because Shope is the most moderate Senator in the caucus and Shamp is full-blood MAGA, so the grassroots are not going to be happy at all.”

For her part, Shamp was largely gracious in a statement she posted on X. “I have been honored to serve as the Republican Senate Majority Leader during this difficult session. We won some important victories together, but the majority of the caucus wanted to make a change because of my opposition to the original “Hobbs/Petersen” budget process that led to the final budget that was just passed. While my opposition was on behalf of many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, the majority wanted a Majority Leader who would champion the process and product and they have the absolute right to get what they want. I have no doubt that Senator Kavanagh will do an outstanding job in that role and wish him the best. For myself, I plan on spending the rest of the day celebrating my wedding anniversary, then I look forward to getting right back to work and continuing to serve the conservative GOP, Arizona First, MAGA, and MAHA movements that make up our Grand Old Party.”

“Miss you already, you were an outstanding leader.” replied the Senate Majority Whip Frank Carroll.

For his part, Kavanagh’s X profile quickly reflected his new title and he remarked that he was looking forward to filling the new role. “I was just elected the majority leader of the Arizona State Senate. It has been a privilege to serve in the Arizona legislature for the past 19 years and I look forward to the coming year as the majority leader.”

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