A turning point for AZGOP?

Chair Gina Swoboda’s reelection could make or break the Arizona Republican Party.

Can Republicans have nice things?

We shall see at Saturday’s Arizona Republican Party statutory meeting.

Republicans will elect their next leader at the meeting, and they have two very different choices for the job:

• Current Chairwoman Gina Swoboda, a quietly competent former election officer who has united the party, filled the coffers and helped Republicans secure their first major victories here in eight years.

• Or Cory McGarr, a one-term lawmaker and pest control technician who was the only Republican lawmaker to lose his reelection this November, and the only Republican we know of who thinks the 2024 election was rigged.

By all accounts, the Arizona Republican Party has been more successful under Swoboda than under any chairman in recent history.

President Donald Trump personally drafted Swoboda, then a third vice chair of the party, to replace former AZGOP head Jeff DeWit last year. The state party needed a new leader at the time because Kari Lake had just firebombed DeWit’s political career by leaking an audio recording of him appearing to “bribe” Lake to get out of the U.S. Senate race by offering her a cushy corporate job.

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Swoboda’s election was something of a turning point for the embattled party that had not had a major statewide victory since Gov. Doug Ducey’s reelection.

Since taking over, Swoboda has somewhat magically kept the two wings of the party from engaging in open warfare during the election, which ended with victories up and down the ballot for Republicans.

But the tensions that have been simmering below the surface are again bubbling to the top ahead of tomorrow’s election for its party head.

The contest has become a proxy battle between Swoboda and Turning Point USA, a powerful grassroots MAGA youth organization based in Arizona.

Trump likes “winners” and he once again endorsed Swoboda. After all, she helped Republicans nearly sweep the ballot and helped Trump win Arizona by the largest margin of any swing state.

But Trump’s Turning Point acolytes haven’t gotten the memo — even though Trump announced his backing of Swoboda at AmericaFest in Phoenix last month, which was, ironically, hosted by Turning Point.

Swoboda’s opponents call her a “RINO,” who has sold out to the “consultant class.” As a former Democrat, she failed their purity test.

And while Turning Point has not officially endorsed McGarr, its members have not been shy about their favoritism.

But why is a MAGA organization bucking Trump’s endorsement of Swoboda? Because it’s not just about the politics. It’s about the money.

The chair controls the party’s purse strings — deciding which companies get the party’s contracts.

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Swoboda broke from her predecessor in a multitude of ways, including by ending the AZGOP’s use of an app called “Superfeed,” which gathers lucrative data on swing voters for get-out-the-vote efforts.

The company that built the app, Superfeed Technologies, Inc., is closely tied to Turning Point and played a big role in the Trump campaign’s ground game last year.

Superfeed has deep roots in Arizona: Former Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit used to be CEO; Turning Point COO Tyler Bowyer has served on the board; and Kari Lake has acted as a consultant.

Swoboda also declined to renew a new contract with a company owned by Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman’s companies, which offered services like campaign texts.

Hoffman is a 2020 fake elector who has a long history of lucrative contracts with Turning Point.

The Republican Party of Arizona is “not for sale,” Swoboda said earlier this week.

“Not to PACS, not to consultants, not to anyone, no matter how well-intentioned, including Turning Point,” she said.

McGarr did not respond to a request for comment.

Bowyer, who has long wanted Swoboda’s position, but withdrew himself as a nominee after it became clear he could not win, said the whole reason Superfeed exists is because the tools AZGOP has used for years have been ineffective and only serve to “enrich DC consultants.”

Even though Swoboda’s decision to cut ties with Superfeed could cost Turning Point a lot of money, that’s not why Turning Point isn’t supporting Swoboda, they say.

Bowyer said Swoboda has “attacked Turning Point over and over.”

But it’s clear that control over political contracts underlies much of the Republican infighting.

Other supporters of McGarr accused Swoboda of being “dishonest, unhinged & unfit to be Chair” in part because of the consultants she has hired at the state party.

Mary Ann Mendoza, a failed Republican legislative candidate from Mesa, sent out a letter to state committeemen this week attacking Swoboda for contracting longtime Republican consultant Chris Baker to work for the party in the 2024 election.

“Chris Baker routinely calls America First conservatives ‘crazy’ and other nasty things in the press,” Mendoza wrote. “Gina (Swoboda) paid him tens of thousands of dollars knowing full well his anti-MAGA track record.”

Hoffman, Bowyer’s alleged partner-in-crime (Attorney General Kris Mayes indicted them both as fake electors), has made millions from Turning Point through one of his communications companies.

We reached out to Hoffman for comment, reminding him we had met at a hearing in his “fake elector” case without realizing that we unintentionally uttered his two “trigger words.”

“Saying that is a great way for me to hang up on you,” he said before hanging up.