The Republican primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District ended on Tuesday with oilman Gary Kiehne conceding the close race and endorsing frontrunner Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin.
BREAKING @Kiehne4Congress endorses @Andy_Tobin in #AZ01. One week later, #GOP primary is over.
— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) September 2, 2014
Kiehne’s decision ends a primary that was too close to call on election night. On Wednesday, a day after the primary, Kiehne trailed Tobin (pictured) with Kiehne getting 35.2 percent of the vote while Tobin got 35.9 percent of the vote. State Rep. Adam Kwasman trailed the two other candidates in third with 28.9 percent of the vote.
Tobin had the backing of major establishment Republican entities like the Chamber of Commerce and Mitt Romney.
As TPM had previously mentioned, in the weeks leading up to the primary news broke that Tobin warned that immigrants from Central America could bring the Ebola virus with them. Never mind that the outbreak had been contained in West Africa.
Tobn will face Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) in the general election.