Republican candidate Jay Feely praised President Donald Trump and free markets during brief remarks at the Republican Party's midterm national convention in Dallas.
Feely, who is running in Arizona's battleground 1st Congressional District, spent most of his five-minute speaking slot lauding small government, low regulation and other economic themes that animated Republicans in the years before Trump's ascent.
He also told the crowd that the attempted 2024 assassination of Trump is what motivated him to step away from his work as a sports commentator and run for political office.
"With blood on his face, President Trump raised a fist and he told this nation to fight," Feely told the crowd. "I walked away from a dream job to get off the sidelines
and into that fight."
The so-called "Trumpapalooza" event had divided Republican candidates in swing congressional districts. The White House's low approval ratings have appeared to drag on the GOP ticket, and some strategists have questioned the decision to emphasize the president's political brand in the run-up to the election.
The Republican incumbent in Arizona's other battleground congressional district, Rep. Juan Ciscomani, told a Washington, D.C., publication he would prioritize a Sept. 10 televised debate against his Democratic challenger rather than attend Trump's convention.
Feely appeared onstage alongside Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in one of Michigan's swing districts, and briefly mentioned Feely's Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Amish Shah.
Shah was known for his bipartisan approach to governance at the Arizona Legislature, and his platform places him toward the ideological center of his party. That hasn't stopped Feely's allies from calling Shah a "Democrat socialist" in television attack ads across the district, a line Feely repeated from the Sept. 9 convention stage.
Feely invoked former President Ronald Reagan to tell the crowd that "freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."
"We will not surrender our future. We are the ones that must preserve it," he said.
Shah's campaign took the opportunity to highlight his work as an emergency room doctor.
"While my opponent is pledging his loyalty to Donald Trump in Dallas, I'm in the ER taking care of Arizonans," he wrote on social media.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jay Feely praises Trump and free markets in midterm convention speech
