Sergio Arellano Elected Arizona GOP Chair After Eligibility Fight Over ‘Fractional’ State Committeemen

Sergio Arellano was elected chairman of the Arizona Republican Party at the party’s annual meeting on January 24, 2026, in Prescott Valley, Arizona, after a contentious internal fight over his eligibility to run that consumed the start of the session and drew procedural challenges from within the party. 

Arellano, a U.S. Army veteran and longtime GOP activist, prevailed in a runoff election against Pam Kirby with a final vote of 761-621, according to Arizona Capitol Times. The meeting, held at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, lasted nearly 11 hours in part because of disputes over party rules and membership status. 

Fight Over Eligibility Threatened Candidacy

The meeting began with a debate over “fractional” state committeemen, a category of party officials whose positions are determined by complex internal formulas based on precinct committeemen numbers. Historically, the party had “rounded up” remaining fractional slots to appoint additional state committeemen for each legislative district. 

Shortly before the meeting, Republican attorney Tim La Sota sent the party a letter threatening litigation over the practice of appointing those fractional members, as reported by Arizona Insiders, arguing it potentially violated party bylaws and state statute. In response, outgoing chair Gina Swoboda, who had announced her resignation to run for Congress, vacated the appointments of 16 fractional state committeemen to avoid potential lawsuits. The decision would have disqualified Arellano from both voting and running for chair, because he was one of those fractional committeemen. 

Arellano issued a statement to state committeemen saying party leadership was attempting to remove him from his committeeman appointment on the eve of the election “in an effort to disqualify my candidacy for Chairman,” according to journalist Christy Kelly. 

. #AZGOP

📣Sergio Arellano directly to state committeemen:

Fellow State Committeemen — important update before Prescott.

AZGOP leadership is attempting to remove me from my State Committeeman appointment on the eve of the convention in an effort to disqualify my candidacy…

— Christy Love Kelly✨ (@Kelly4Humanity) January 23, 2026

At the meeting, however, voting members debated the issue on the floor. “Don’t worry about the litigation. That’s the party’s problem,” Swoboda told the voting members, according to KJZZ. After a series of points of order and a motion to the floor, they ultimately voted to seat the 16 fractional state committeemen, restoring their voting status,  culminating in a win for Arellano.

Race and Results

Once the eligibility question was resolved, the chair contest proceeded with four candidates nominated from the floor: Arellano, Kirby, Kathleen Winn, and Robert Branch. After the first round of voting, Arellano and Kirby advanced to a runoff. 

Arellano’s victory positions him to lead the party into the 2026 election cycle, with a focus on fundraising and expanding GOP outreach across the state. 

Outgoing Chair and Internal Party Context

Outgoing chair Gina Swoboda served as party chair from 2024 to 2026 and drew internal criticism in late 2025 when she announced that she would resign at the annual meeting to focus on her bid for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. 

Swoboda’s decision to vacate fractional committeeman appointments drew sharp reactions at the meeting, where some party members argued the move was unnecessary and risked internal disruption. 

In her remarks at the convention’s conclusion, Swoboda told party members, “I just want you to work together and go win.”

Arellano’s election reflects a continuing internal shift within the Arizona GOP as it attempts to unify amid factional debates over party rules, structure, and strategy ahead of the midterm cycle. However, it is not without potent opposition. Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer suggested that Swoboda “tricked people in Maricopa County to support Sergio,” in a post to X after the election, in a maneuver to drop her Congressional bid and instead challenge Alex Kolodin for the Secretary of State nomination in the upcoming primary, suggesting a rift between the incoming AZGOP Chair and the Turning Point network.

Yesterday at the AZGOP meeting Gina Swoboda’s camp told people after she tricked people in Maricopa County to support Sergio, she is now planning to drop out of the CD-1 race to run against election integrity champion Alex Kolodin.

I believe based on her relationships she’s in…

— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) January 25, 2026

In his first statement as AZGOP Chair, Arellano said, “Our Party stands at a crossroads. We are facing Democrats who seek to control our children and our schools, weaken our borders, undermine law enforcement, and grow government at the expense of families and small businesses. With so much at stake, the State Committeemen elected me with a clear mandate: to end internal division, reenergize our donors and volunteers, and win elections for the hardworking Arizonans who raise their families, attend church, pay their taxes, respect the law, and love this country.”