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“David Schweikert never met an ethics rule or campaign finance law he didn’t want to break. If you want to be represented by a politician who would rather use your taxpayer dollars to upgrade his airline seats to first class than to protect your retirement fund, Schweikert’s your guy. If you’re looking for a champion for Arizona families, Jevin Hodge is your candidate – and I look forward to welcoming him to Congress in November.” – DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney
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To: Interested Parties
From: Monica Robinson, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: August 3, 2022
Subject: The Case Against David Schweikert
Arizona Republicans have once again rallied behind the man who never met an ethics rule or campaign finance law he didn’t break: Rep. David Schweikert, embattled incumbent and now Republican nominee in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.
Having won his primary, Shady Schweikert faces the toughest battle of his political career. Redistricting made the maps several points better for Democrats in AZ-01, and it’s now a district that went for Biden and every statewide Democrat would have won since 2018. Schweikert heads to November with a depleted warchest – both a result of his anemic fundraising, and because he had to shell out $125,000 for a massive fine after he broke multiple campaign finance laws and abused donor money.
Getting to the general election was no cakewalk for Schweikert. He’s spent the last eight months fighting for his political life in a bruising primary against self-funded gajillionaire and corrupt businessman Elijah Norton, who spent $2 million of his own money to clobber Schweikert on the airwaves for his spineless policy positions and a myriad of ethics issues. While the two lobbed attacks at each other, Arizona Republicans increasingly despaired that whoever survived the primary would be so dragged down by their own extremism and ethics baggage that neither candidate would be able to prevail in November. And Schweikert didn’t do himself any favors when he voted against lowering the cost of insulin for Arizonans – then tried to justify it by claiming there is already a cure for Type 1 diabetes (there isn’t).
Schweikert ultimately survived his primary, but it doesn’t mean he’s caught a lucky break. Now he has to convince Arizonans that they should vote for him – and in a matchup against Democrat Jevin Hodge, Schweikert may already be writing his concession speech.
Jevin Hodge is a lifelong Arizonan, a business and community leader with a proven record, and the strong campaigner who can take on David Schweikert this November. Jevin grew up in Tempe, where he and his brother were raised by a single mom. Times weren’t easy – they lived in public housing and relied on food stamps, but Jevin’s mom always found a way to make ends meet. From her, Jevin learned the values of faith, hard work, and service to others – values that drove him to public service and taught him to give back to his community. For years, Jevin has led the longest-running Head Start program in Arizona, where he used his business background to grow the organization and ensured the next generation of Arizona students and their families have the support they need to thrive. Now, Jevin is stepping up for his community again to retire one of the most corrupt members of Congress: David Schweikert.
Arizonans can’t afford to be represented by a politician like David Schweikert who only looks out for his own bottom line. They’ll reject Schweikert and his shady politics and send Jevin Hodge to Congress this November.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
“As Congress passed a bill to cap insulin costs at $35 per month, Arizona’s Republican Representatives voted against the plan while the state’s Democrats supported it. In defense of his ‘no’ vote, Congressman David Schweikert (R) of Scottsdale said there is already a cure for type 1 diabetes[.]” [12News, 4/5/22]
HEADLINE: VERIFY: No, Congressman Schweikert, there isn’t a cure for diabetes [12News, 4/5/22]
HEADLINE: House Panel Finds Arizona Congressman Violated 11 Ethics Rules [New York Times, 7/30/20]
“The investigation also found that, between 2011 and 2018, at least four members of Mr. Schweikert’s congressional staff paid for personal items or expenses for Mr. Schweikert, including food and babysitting services, and were then reimbursed for those costs by Mr. Schweikert’s campaign.” [New York Times, 7/30/20]
“He barely blinked during this interview in December[.]” [Roll Call, 3/8/22]
HEADLINE: Low-Profile Trump Backers Struggle To Raise Cash [Axios, 8/8/21]
“Schweikert’s legal bill from years of investigations into his behavior has cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, and impeded his ability to solicit campaign donations.” [Arizona Republic, 7/26/22]
“Schweikert, who represents Arizona’s Scottsdale-based 6th Congressional District, reported another meager sum for the quarter, $167,000. No Republican targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised less[.]” [Arizona Republic, 7/16/21]
HEADLINE: U.S. Rep. David Schweikert fined $125,000 for misuse of campaign funds [KJZZ, 2/12/22]
“Like in Superman or X-Men, this graphic depicts the dealings of a supervillain. But it’s not Lex Luthor or Magneto. It’s Shady Schweikert, a besmirched caricature of the incumbent congressman clad in an orange jumpsuit and blue baby bonnet. Through six pages of sequential storytelling, Shady Schweikert accepts illegal campaign contributions and writes himself a fake loan, blowing the cash on first-class flights, tickets to the Super Bowl, and fancy dinners.” [Phoenix New Times, 6/6/22]
“The other shoe has dropped for Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ). His campaign committee has agreed to pay a $125,000 federal fine for misusing donor money and associated reporting violations, according to new Federal Election Commission disclosures.” [Daily Beast, 2/11/22]
HEADLINE: Congressman David Schweikert sued over ‘homophobic’ campaign ads [12News, 7/13/22]
HEADLINE: Trump’s endorsement goes to … David Schweikert? That’s a stunner. [Arizona Republic, 6/17/22]
“I have the world’s best little girl. The only tricky side is she has an absolute crush on Kevin McCarthy. I’ve been trying to explain to her that all boys are bad except daddy.” [Roll Call, 3/8/22]
SHADY SCHWEIKERT IS OUT FOR HIMSELF
SCHWEIKERT ABUSED TAXPAYER AND DONOR MONEY FOR PERSONAL GAIN
Arizonans can’t trust Shady Schweikert to be a steward of their tax dollars. In 2020, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee unanimously found that Schweikert committed 11 ethics violations for “campaign finance violations and errors in reporting by his campaign committees; the misuse of his congressional allowance; pressuring official staff members to perform campaign work,” and additional penalties for lying to the committee. In 2022, the “other shoe dropped” when he was fined $125,000 by the FEC for “knowing and willful” campaign finance violations, including misusing donations for his personal expenses like upgrading airline seats, his own meals, and his dry cleaning. Schweikert and his staff attempted to “conceal the true purpose of certain disbursements” by submitting false consulting invoices to the FEC. Schweikert had no problem lying to Arizonans about his abuse of taxpayer and campaign donor money, and he’s proven all he cares about is helping his own bottom line.
SCHWEIKERT WANTS TO BAN ABORTION WITH NO EXCEPTIONS
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, David Schweikert would spell disaster for Arizona women. Schweikert has made opposing reproductive rights a core issue of his candidacy: He wants to make abortion illegal with no exceptions for rape or incest, and backed an abortion ban in Arizona that would make abortion illegal after 15 weeks and also includes no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Schweikert hasn’t stopped at trying to ban abortion: He has also repeatedly attacked birth control access, voting against the Right to Contraception Act in July and repeatedly voting to defund Planned Parenthood. He also has repeatedly voted to repeal protections that bar insurance companies from charging women more than men for the same care and requiring coverage of maternity care and birth control.
Schweikert would take away Arizona women’s fundamental right to make their own decisions about their own health care, and his support for overturning Roe means he supports a slew of abortion bans across the country that will result in the imprisonment of women and doctors. Support for safe, legal abortion has never been higher and David Schweikert is dangerously out of step.
SCHWEIKERT TRIED TO TOSS OUT YOUR VOTE
To David Schweikert, democracy, law, and order are merely suggestions to be thrown away if they get in between him and his political ambitions. Mere hours after the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, David Schweikert voted to toss out the 2020 presidential election results, trying and failing to overturn the will of millions of voters. He promoted the conspiracy theory that the FBI had played a role in the January 6th insurrection attempt, and lamented the prosecution of the rioters, saying he did not believe they had “malice in their souls.” As Arizona Mirror reported:
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