Arizona State Senator Carlyle Begay has dropped out of the Congressional District 1 race and has endorssed Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. Babeu said he was honored by his support, and promised to “champion the issues for the Navajo Nation in Washington.”
Begay entered the race late and had little chance of winning in the packed Republican Primary. With candidates Gary Keihne and Ken Bennett willfully violating campaign sign laws across the district in order to get out ahead of the pack, the race has already gotten rough.
Begay, a Republican from Kayenta, decided to leave the race and endorse Babeu because of the sheriff’s strong support for law enforcement, national security issues and instilling fiscal sanity in Congress.
“Paul Babeu is a conservative we can all trust to represent the needs of Congressional District 1,” Begay said. “He is standing strong for the Native American tribes against the federal government’s onerous regulations that threaten hundreds of jobs on the reservations.”