Pro-Israel Rep. Greg Stanton crushed democratic socialist challenger Kai Newkirk in Arizona’s Democratic primary Tuesday night, handing the party’s anti-Israel left another embarrassing defeat.
Stanton, a former Phoenix mayor first elected to Congress in 2018, easily beat back Newkirk’s insurgent challenge in Arizona’s 4th Congressional District.
Initial results showed Stanton winning 68.1% of the vote to Newkirk’s 31.9%, according to multiple media outlets.
“This campaign presented voters with a real choice about how Democrats should lead,” Stanton said in a statement posted on his election campaign page after the race was called.
“Tonight,” Stanton continued, the voters “chose proven leadership that fights back, delivers real results, and brings our party together.”
Stanton will now face Republican Zuhdi Jasser in November’s general election.
Newkirk, 45, tried to turn the race into a referendum on Israel and the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
The activist repeatedly attacked Stanton over AIPAC support and accused the Israeli government of “trying to interfere in our elections,” including in Arizona’s 4th District, which covers parts of Phoenix and Maricopa County.
Newkirk pointed to a $45 million text message campaign aimed at improving Israel’s image in the U.S. as evidence of alleged interference.
He claimed “they may be targeting areas where AIPAC is more invested or where these issues are more at stake.”
Newkirk also made clear he would rather go to jail than take AIPAC money.
“I’ve been arrested over 25 times in civil disobedience — and I’ll go to jail for justice again before I ever take a dime from AIPAC,” Newkirk wrote on X last week, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The result comes as the far left has notched wins in other Democratic primaries around the country, often by running against Israel and attacking establishment Democrats as too moderate.
But Arizona Democrats were not buying it this time.
Newkirk’s platform included ending all military aid to Israel and imposing an arms embargo on the Jewish state, which he has accused of genocide.
Stanton, 56, voted last week against an amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky that would have cut military aid to Israel.
Newkirk attacked him over the vote and said he would have supported the amendment.
“Greg Stanton has taken over $300K from AIPAC,” Newkirk wrote. “And today — as so many Americans in our district and across the country struggle to get by — he just voted to send billions more of our tax dollars to Israel to fund their war crimes and genocide. Disgraceful.”
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Stanton defended his vote on X, saying the amendment “would undermine America’s ability to counter real threats from Iran” and weaken efforts to promote long-term stability in the region.
He also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and wrote that “clear change is necessary” as the U.S.-Israel security agreement approaches its 2028 expiration.
Newkirk had the backing of progressive groups including Our Revolution, Track AIPAC and the Progressive Democrats of America.
He was also endorsed by Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks.
“Kai is Israel Free and has fought to get money out of politics his whole life,” wrote Uygur last month.
But Newkirk’s campaign hit turbulence before Election Day.
The Young Democrats of Arizona pulled its endorsement earlier in July, saying it had been “made aware of some concerning patterns of behavior” by Newkirk, without giving specifics.
Newkirk denied wrongdoing and called the move part of a smear campaign.
He said the endorsement withdrawal came amid “a wave of wins by democratic socialists” and called it a “weaponization of … disavowed misinformation.”
Newkirk did speak out against last year’s killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
“I stand always with my beloved Jewish siblings against the scourge of antisemitism just as I will never stop in the nonviolent struggle to end the genocide in Gaza, release all hostages, and open the way to just, lasting peace,” he said.
The primary result was a clear rebuke of the party’s loud socialist flank.
Newkirk tried to ride the anti-Israel wave that has consumed chunks of the Democratic base since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Instead, he got blown out by more than 30 points.
For Republicans, the race offered another reminder that Democrats are still being dragged into messy internal fights over socialism, Israel and foreign policy.
Stanton survived this one easily.
But the fact that a sitting Democrat had to fight off an anti-Israel socialist challenger at all shows how far left the party’s activist class has moved.
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
