Amish Shah leads Jay Feely in early CD-1 results

Now to one of the most tightly contested congressional races in the country, CD1, that, of course, that huge area in North Phoenix and Scottsdale. Yeah, Justin Lum is covering that for us tonight. And this was the race everyone had their eyes on going into the night. And it looks like a pretty healthy lead for Amish Shah right now, Justin. Exactly Mark, Steve, I mean you ve basically seen this packed crowd out in front of this stage since then. Very much, Justin. Optimistic, a proud crowd. You've heard the term blue wave and now blue tsunami. This is a race This is a race that everyone has been watching very, very closely. The political consultants have said that this is going to be close, a toss-up between Shah and Feeley. But here we are, a sizable lead right now. It's still early. We've heard speakers say it right in front of us to hold our horses. But this first batch looks good for the Democrats. Steve, you were here in 2024, I believe. This is a very different sort of mood, more of a celebratory mood here tonight at the Arizona Democratic Watch Party. Now, we have not seen Amish Shah yet on the ground here, but quite literally, he has been boots on the ground, campaigning and knocking on thousands and thousands of doors. Through two campaigns, losing by a narrow margin in 2024 to David Schweikart, Democrats believe this is his time to help flip the house blue, representing a district that has leaned Republican for years. Shah has experience in politics as a state lawmaker for five years before running for Congress the first time. His focus has been on affordability, stopping tariffs and lowering gas prices, as well as as well as expanding health care access. We did catch up with U.S. Senator... Senator Ruben Gallego and Congressman Greg Stanton, who say Shah will win. Amish has been hitting those doors, talking to the voters. I think Republicans in that district are going some of them are going to vote for Amish Shah because they're very frustrated. They understand the problems that's happening in this country. Affordability is still an issue for them. The war in Iran is still an issue with them. The cuts to Medicaid are still an issue with them. Amish Shah has been talking about that. Jay Feeley has not. With his experience as an emergency room doctor, a very specialized area of medicine, I think he'll be a huge asset to the entire Congress, both Democrats and Republicans with that experience on health care and the actual impact of these massive cuts, the impact on everyday Arizonans. Again, this is a packed house, a lot of enthusiasm, trying to speak as loud as I can because it is loud in here, a very, very celebratory mood as we await and see where Amish Shah is. Again, it is still early. We'll be watching this race closely. I can say I even saw one woman in front crying tears of joy seemingly with the early results. We'll send it back to you guys in studio. All right, Justin, thank you for that. You know, Steve, we've covered elections where you're with the team that's winning and with the team that's not looking so good. And you get a party situation at one and a somber atmosphere at the other. It's like almost like clockwork. That's how it works with elections, right? It doesn't matter who you're covering. You want to be with the winner. Oh, you do. It's just more fun. Yeah, kind of. People start trickling out and, you know, they see the numbers. And even if you're ambitious or you have hope, it's still, you know what it looks like, right? Yeah. And former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feeley, well, he's running on the Republican side for that congressional district. And that's right. And that's where Taylor Wertz is at. She's been following the Feeley campaign out there. Give us the mood out there. What's the vibe like? Yeah, Stephen, Mark, it was a packed house here at Dillon Precision in North Scottsdale tonight. You can see the crowd has started to disperse a little bit. Of course, that mood did initially start to dampen with that first announcement of unofficial election results from the county, saying that Jay Feeley's opponent, Amish Shah... Was leading by about 11 points, Feeley himself got up to give a speech about 30 minutes ago in that speech. He did not officially concede, but he did admit it would take a lot to get back in this race Feely called the results so far disappointing for the state as a whole, saying what's going on in the country scares him, but he did tell us. Even before the results came in tonight that he was in a joyful mood and is at peace with whatever the results were going to be saying he's leaning on his faith. Feely was handpicked by President Trump to run for District one in the seat vacated by Republican Dave Schweikert. In his speech tonight, Feely says he's proud of his campaign and the way it was run, saying there's no regrets about the way they did it, but he did have a strong message for voters going forward. I still believe that we live in the greatest country in the world. I absolutely believe that. This country gives us more opportunities than anywhere else in the world. But we have to fight for it. More so now than ever. If this election continues to go the way that we don't want it to go, and the Democrats get back in control, if they control the House and the Senate, they're going to try to push towards 2028. They want to win the presidency, the House and the Senate, and fundamentally change this country forever. We cannot allow that to happen. Now you can probably still hear the music playing and there is still a bit of a crowd here, so people haven't completely given up, but the mood definitely changed from the beginning of the night when this all got started. Of course, those unofficial results from Maricopa County are just that not official yet, so there could still be some leeway, but Feely himself said in his speech tonight that it would take a lot to come back at this point. This in one of the most closely watched congressional races in quite a competitive district. Live in North Scottsdale, Taylor Wertz, Fox 10 News.