Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has spent more than 40 years trying to sell socialism to the American people. He finally found a buyer in Arizona’s First Congressional District, and the buyer’s name is Amish Shah.
Sanders never even had to make the pitch. In 2019, Democrat Amish Shah took the microphone at a Phoenix Democratic Socialists of America event to stump for Sanders’ presidential campaign, telling the room this country needs “universal, single-payer Medicare for All.” Then he spent five years in the Arizona Legislature voting like it.
Think I’m exaggerating? The tape is still out there.
I know Shah’s record well, because I was there. Shah and I served together in the Arizona House of Representatives, where I read the same bills he read and watched him vote on them. When I tell you what this man believes, I am not reciting a consultant’s talking points.
Start with healthcare. Medicare for All isn’t merely a healthcare plan; it is the largest government takeover in American history. According to the Mercatus Center, the Sanders-Shah version would add a staggering $32.6 trillion in federal spending over ten years, and there is no honest version of that math that doesn’t reach straight into the paycheck of every working family in Arizona’s Congressional District 1.
Worse, that same summer Bernie raised his hand on a national debate stage when asked whether his government plan would cover illegal aliens. Under the plan Shah was cheering, the illegal alien who broke into this country carries the same insurance card as the Scottsdale nurse who has paid into the system for thirty years. She pays for it with long hours and a shrinking paycheck. Illegal aliens pay nothing and collect every benefit.
Now that he has a general election to win, Shah pitches a Medicare “buy-in,” more aptly, Medicare for All on the installment plan. You see, the label changed. The man didn’t.
On the border, his record is not complicated. In 2022, I sponsored HB 2492 to require proof of citizenship to register to vote in Arizona, and Shah voted no. That same year he voted against the state budget that created Arizona’s Border Security Fund, a vote even the Arizona Republic has confirmed.
Arizonans have been living with the results for years. We get the fentanyl moving north through Nogales. We get the cartel traffic. We get the ranchers with cut fences and the border-county sheriffs left to pick up Washington’s tab. Shah sat at the Arizona Capitol through every bit of it and voted like a man who represents Vermont.
Yet none of that seems to be what excites him about Washington. His plan for a Democrat House? Asked on national cable television during this campaign, Shah put impeachment on the table. That’s his pitch: chaos, hyper-partisanship, political tribalism, and a refusal to actually govern. Shah is a man so out of touch he’s making that pitch to a district where families are getting crushed at the grocery store and opening utility bills they can’t pay.
Arizona has seen this movie. Democrats impeached President Trump twice in his first term, the Senate acquitted him twice, and the country got nothing for it but cable news hits and a stack of unpaid bills.
Shah has also decided that boys belong in girls’ sports. In 2022, Shah voted against SB 1165, the law that protects the roster spots, trophies and scholarships Arizona girls have trained their entire lives to earn. Shah will call that inclusion. Ask a father in Fountain Hills what he calls it.
But the vote I have never been able to get past is SB 1253. That 2023 bill would have required a convicted sex offender who is the parent or guardian of a student to notify that child’s school every year. Amish Shah voted no, and Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed it. Every parent in this district is entitled to know that before they fill out a ballot.
This district has already turned him down once. In 2024, Shah lost this race, and since then he has put impeaching the President on the table.
Arizona has a far better option, and President Trump has already made his choice. As Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters put it: “President Trump endorsed Jay Feely for one reason: to win. Jay will lower costs, secure the border, and keep our neighborhoods safe. While Feely fights for Arizona families, Amish Shah is a Bernie Sanders-endorsing radical socialist who wants to destroy our economy, raise taxes, and give free healthcare to illegal immigrants.”
Jay, on the other hand, isn’t a career politician hunting for a promotion. His life would be easier without politics. He’s running because good men can’t stay on the sidelines, and he will go to Washington to bring costs down, keep the border secure and keep Arizona neighborhoods safe, which happens to be the entire job description.
Make no mistake, I served alongside Amish Shah, so I know precisely what this district would be shipping to Congress: a Bernie Sanders socialist who will spend your money, open your border, put Washington in charge of your healthcare and vote against your kids’ safety on his way out the door.
Early ballots are sitting on kitchen tables across Congressional District 1. Fill them out for Jay Feely. Not for Bernie. Not for another impeachment circus. For Arizona, and for the children who will inherit whichever country we leave them.
Jake Hoffman is a husband, father of 6, CEO of 1TEN | A Creative Agency, CEO of AlignAct.com, an Arizona State Senator, a member of the Republican National Committee as the National Committeeman for Arizona, and the Founding Chairman of the Arizona Freedom Caucus.
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