Amish Shah hammers Trump ties as Jay Feely warns of ‘big government socialism’ in CD1

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely and emergency room doctor Amish Shah faced off in a tense debate Wednesday evening over who is best suited to represent Congressional District 1, with each painting the other as a party loyalist who will do nothing more than fall in line in Washington D.C. 

Congressional District 1 stretches across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills and parts of north and central Phoenix. It leans Republican, but is among the state’s most competitive and has become a top target for national Democrats who hope it will lead to flipping control of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Over the past several weeks, Feely has sought to align Shah as an embodiment of the far-left elements of the Democratic Party, likening him to U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders and saying he would advance socialist policies if voters elect him, despite a fairly moderate voting track record in his five years as a state representative. 

Shah, meanwhile, has highlighted Feely’s ties to President Donald Trump, seeking to capitalize on widespread public disapproval of the president to tank Feely’s campaign. Feely, who was endorsed by Trump and uprooted his campaign from an East Valley district to CD1 at Trump’s request, has made no secret of his close relationship with the president, using it to appeal to Republican voters during the primary and joining a midterm rally organized by Trump in Dallas last month. But the Republican has also tried to distance himself from the president, telling Axios Phoenix that he’s “nobody’s rubber stamp.” 

On Wednesday, Shah hammered Feely on his relationship with Trump, telling voters that backing the former NFL player would only cement the federal policies that have led to a skyrocketing rise in costs for everyday Arizonans.

“Do you want more of the same that you’ve seen in the last two years, or is it time to change things and change direction for our country? I’m going to stand up to the Trump administration,” Shah said. “Congress is meant to be a check on the president. That’s not happening right now. Their entire party is like a cult of personality around one person. When he says jump, these guys have to say how high.”

And Feely name-dropped several high profile Democrats over the course of the hour, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, in a bid to tie Shah to the Democrats disliked most by Republicans. Feely warned voters that backing Shah would hand the country’s reins over to the Democratic Party.

“What you have is two different visions — not just for right now, it’s not about this election, it’s about the future of this country. It’s about where we want to go,” Feely said. “I believe in limited government, individual liberties, lower taxes, lower costs for you. The Democratic Party and Amish Shah, they believe in big government socialism.” 

During the debate, Shah and Feely sought to dispel the labels each launched at the other. Feely vowed to work for voters and Shah repeatedly pointed to examples from his time as a state legislator when he worked with Republicans as proof that he isn’t afraid to buck his party. 

With affordability top of mind for voters going into November, the two candidates weighed in on what policies they would support in Congress to reduce inflation. Shah said he would advocate for ending the war Trump started with Iran, preventing tariffs from constantly being changed to help businesses gain more stable footing and clawing back the cuts to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill that health experts say are at fault for climbing health insurance premium rates. 

He also called for a Medicare buy-in option that could drive down healthcare costs and for building more housing. 

Feely, meanwhile, said he would support an increase in real wage growth to help paychecks go further, but said the federal government shouldn’t recklessly embrace monetary policies like quantitative easing, where the central bank expands monetary supply, like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feely blamed the influx of new money from quantitative easing during the Biden administration for causing hyperinflation, though the policy was adopted by the Federal Reserve, which is independent of a presidential administration. 

Feely also advocated for cutting costs for taxpayers by rooting out wasteful spending in the government, including in Medicaid and Medicare. 

”There’s probably a trillion dollars in fraud in our government,” he said. “We have to get rid of that waste and fraud. It drives down costs.”

When pressed on what fraud and waste he was referring to, Feely couldn’t point to a specific source. And when questioned about whether his claim was even true, given that the Department of Government Efficiency failed to find widespread fraud or wasteful spending, Feely rebutted that DOGE was prevented from doing its work by Democrat-led lawsuits. 

Feely also pointed to an announcement from Vice President JD Vance in September that more than 750,000 “phantom people” who never existed will be removed from Affordable Care Act coverage as proof that healthcare programs are being defrauded at taxpayer expense. But it remains unclear whether those people were mistakenly tagged by the White House taskforce and the investigation is ongoing. 

To drive down costs in healthcare, Shah called for restoring the funding that was cut from Medicaid by the One Big Beautiful Bill and removing reporting requirements that healthcare advocates say are too onerous and will result in people losing coverage. Shah pointed out that kicking people off of Medicaid will only increase health insurance premiums for everyone, make emergency rooms more crowded and force some hospitals to shut their doors. 

“The hospitals are on the hook,” Shah said. “When you pass something like the One Big Beautiful Bill that cuts all this Medicaid, the hospitals absorb the costs.” 

But Feely argued that the legislation didn’t make cuts to Medicaid funding, but instead simply decreased in future increases for the program. And he said the increased work and reporting requirements for recipients aren’t “unreasonable, unkind or unjust,” as critics have said. Instead, Feely called for more price transparency in healthcare and said he opposed awarding subsidies to insurance companies. 

In the past, the federal government approved premium healthcare tax credits to people who signed up for healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, which allowed millions of Americans to afford health insurance. The Trump administration ended that program, which led to more than 121,000 Arizonans losing coverage. That number is expected to grow as the new Medicaid reporting and work requirements kick in next year. 

A fight over Arizona’s Colorado River water rights is likely on the table for the state’s next congressional delegation, after the Trump administration approved an agreement that saddled the Grand Canyon State with the deepest cuts to its share, angering many, including Trump allies like Feely. Shah and Feely both said they would fight that decision in Congress and agreed that the state should invest in desalination efforts. 

Shah used the topic to segue into a discussion of data centers, calling Feely’s support for them proof that he wouldn’t advocate for the interests of his constituents. Feely defended himself by saying they would create jobs and could be brought to the district in a way that benefits residents. 

“When you do it the right way, you can actually help people, and it’s an industry that should be welcomed,” he said.

Shah acknowledged that data centers are an important part of the country’s technological advancement, but said that he is against them being built in CD1 because of local opposition. 

On immigration, Feely used xenophobic language to accuse immigrants of rape and murder and said that electing Shah would help Democrats usher in Biden-era policies that would result in the same. 

“When the Democrats willingly opened the border and let tens of millions of illegals come across, allowed them to be here, allowed the rapes and murders to happen, they put the protections of Americans behind politics,” Feely said. “And now I listen to some of these Democrats say their No. 1 priority is amnesty for the tens of millions of illegals that came across. You have a choice, because if Democrats get back in control, they will open the borders again.” 

Shah rebutted that he is against open borders and illegal immigration but added that the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement has been too inhumane and resulted in civil rights violations. 

“What we saw over the last couple of years was an administration that put folks that had six weeks of training and a gun out on the streets,” he said. “We all see grisly videos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti being shot. That’s not the kind of immigration enforcement I want to see. And when you vote for more of the same, that’s what you’re going to enable.” 

Shah noted that he supports targeting criminals and fentanyl trafficking, creating a pathway to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and a guestworker program that could help invigorate the state’s economy. 

The pair also weighed in on the Iran War. Feely defended the Trump administration’s decision to start the war, which Trump said would only take four weeks, though the fighting continues nearly eight months later.  He acknowledged that it has caused an economic strain for Arizonans, but said it was a necessary sacrifice to ensure Iran didn’t develop nuclear weapons.  

“Anybody who says that we should not have gone into this war: What was the alternative? To do nothing, when we knew that they were quickly getting to the point where they could have nuclear weapons?” he said. 

Shah, too, agreed that preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons was the right choice, but said that the Trump administration has shown it can’t be trusted with continuing the war. As proof, he pointed to the scandal of Vance, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military leaders using a Signal chat to discuss military operations, to which a journalist was erroneously added. Shah added that the war has already cost the lives of too many Americans and left the region more unstable than before. 

“Do you trust this administration to go out there and go to war and make sure that achieve our objectives?” Shah asked Feely. “I certainly don’t, and I think the American people don’t, either.”

Feely didn’t say whether he trusts the Trump administration to continue the war, or whether he would support ending it, turning instead to criticize Shah for his support of renewable energy.