Feely and Shah clash on Medicaid in an otherwise agreeable debate

Jay Feely, the Republican candidate for Arizona’s hotly contested District 1 congressional seat, has been a lot of different animals in his career: a mighty Wolverine in college, a regal Cardinal in the NFL (Let’s go Cards!). As a politician, he has chosen to become a MAGAt, a larval insect known for feeding on rotting matter. Why is a story for another day.

The MAGA-backed Feely squared off against his Democratic opponent, emergency medicine doctor Amish Shah, in North Scottsdale Wednesday night, where they argued about policy and the war. Medicaid was a particular point of contention in what was an otherwise surprisingly agreeable debate for the open seat. Trump-endorsed Feely tried to tie Shah to the national party while repeating talking points from the current unpopular administration. 

Feely and former state lawmaker Shah stood behind their podiums on the debate stage for the contest hosted by Clean Elections and the Arizona Media Association. The two candidates seek to represent the Valley’s affluent purple district, which spans central Phoenix, Scottsdale, Cave Creek, and into the Tonto National Forest. The crucial race is seen as a one-to-win for both parties to secure control of the U.S. House.

Fiscal conservative Rep. David Schweikert currently represents the district. He declined to seek reelection and instead launched a failed gubernatorial campaign. 

The debate was a fairly policy-heavy, respectful conversation that didn’t resort to personal attacks or back-and-forth jabs. Both candidates praised the country’s capitalist system and agreed that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t receive Medicare. They supported mail-in voting and water desalination plants. Both said they’d fight for Arizona’s share of Colorado River water and believed the Biden administration failed at the border.

Despite their common ground, the debate over Medicaid was a place of total disagreement. Feely trumpeted the Trump administration’s talking points that Medicaid is an “abject failure” and claimed that there are a million people on the program who “aren’t real people.” 

He vehemently defended President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which will cut over $1 trillion from healthcare programs through 2034 and is projected to kick four million people off their health insurance, according to the National Institutes of Health. In Arizona, the legislation is estimated to kick between 350,000 and 550,000 residents off the state’s Medicaid program and drive up health care premiums by 30%. 

Feely, a place kicker, claimed the bill would only cut off “illegals” and those who didn’t work.

Shah, an emergency room physician, disagreed. He argued that the work requirements will create significant administrative waste, spending money to verify people’s employment status rather than paying healthcare costs. Plus, eligible individuals will be kicked off their care simply for failing to fill out paperwork correctly. 

Taxpayers, doctors, and hospitals will still feel the impact. Residents kicked off their insurance will still need to go to the emergency room, which will clog waiting rooms and pass costs on to hospitals, potentially resulting in hospital closures. In addition to rolling back the measures in Trump’s bill, Shah also said the country has to “lead forward” to implement a plan that “actually lowers costs.” 

“We pay twice as much as the next most expensive country on earth,” Shah said of the country’s healthcare system. “And we leave a lot of people out in the cold.” 

Shah said the solution is a public buy-in option and “universal healthcare” for residents to make sure “every American citizen gets covered” through a variety of options. 

Beyond his support for the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Feely didn’t have much of a healthcare plan. He called for “price transparency” in healthcare costs and the end of insurance subsidies. But he mainly criticized Shah, claiming that he wants Medicare for All and campaigned with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, which Shah disputed. 

Feely repeatedly railed against the national Democratic Party. He claimed that it was the Democrats’ number one priority to give “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants and linked Shah to “Green New Deal” policies, a proposal that has never become law, or even a formal bill in Congress. 

Shah responded that he’s bucked his party before and will do it again. He didn’t endorse open borders and the Green New Deal policies. Instead, he said he supported legal pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients and clean energy investments. 

Meanwhile, Shah said the Trump administration “bungled” the war in Iran over its “reckless behavior,” put military lives at risk, and made the Middle East “more unstable” than when the conflict started. Feely defended Trump’s decision to go to war. 

Despite the back-and-forth, the debate largely ended how it began: with some common ground. Both men said the district wants a non-radical representative who thinks independently. Voters will decide who that candidate is.