36 MEGALOPOLITAN LIFE BEST TEAM SPIRIT MEXICO IN THE WORLD CUP In June, normally summer-quiet Downtown Phoenix bars and restaurants had to adapt to the pandemonium that crept up during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. What started as the change of a channel on a few bar TVs crescendoed into fenced-off streets, police cars, brass bandas and day-long block parties that gave Phoenix a distinctly Mexican flare. Mexico’s team started strong during their initial matches and landed Group A’s first finish. The hype grew. Managers at Crybaby, Revolución, The Pemberton and The Churchill stepped up with drink specials and live music, and were rewarded with overflow crowds. Sana Sana Cerveceria set up massive screens, booths with local vendors and a gated area for folks to watch the matches and drink light lagers or micheladas. The fans continued to bring the party. Groups arrived in creative green, white and red outfits, chanted with vigor and tossed people in the air. The ride ended when heavy-favorite England defeated Mexico 3-2 on July 5. Later, some other team eventually won the World Cup. Who even remembers now? Phoenix’s lasting memories will be of entire families getting jubilantly sprayed with beer and cold water every time Mexico scored a single jubilant goal and the dance parties that lasted for hours after. i i i BEST INTERFERENCE WITH A POLICE OPERATION DOORDASH ROBOT The scene was tense: In June, a Chandler police SWAT team was responding to a weapons-related incident at a residence. Mid-standoff, someone rolled up. It wasn’t backup or nosy neighbors or a TV truck. It was Dot, a DoorDash robot. You may have seen the small red food delivery robots scooting whimsically around town in bike lanes, waiting patiently at four-way stops and side-eyeing cars that get too close. This time, a Dot pulled up to an active police situation, and the cops were not charmed. Police determined that no one at the scene had ordered food, and when the robot didn’t respond to verbal commands to leave, they contacted DoorDash to get a techni- cian to come and escort the little squirt out of the area. A DoorDash spokesperson told the media, “Our robot behaved as designed — stopping and waiting safely while author- ities managed the scene.” i i i BEST DEMOCRAT KRIS MAYES Of the major elected Democrats in Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes has arguably done the most with the power she possesses. Gov. Katie Hobbs has had to contend with a Republican-led legislature, blunting her policy efforts. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes says the right things about telling the Department of Justice to kick rocks, but he’s largely an administrator tasked with making sure elections run smoothly. Arizona’s Dems in Congress are stuck making noise about Trump’s overreaches until they can regain a majority in one or both chambers. But since Trump claimed the White House in 2025, Mayes has been hustling. She’s filed 48 lawsuits against the Trump administration to date, along the way successfully freeing tens of millions of dollars the administration has held hostage. She was part of the lawsuit that confirmed birthright citizenship, and she got the Department of Homeland Security to slow its roll on a planned immigration deten- tion center in Surprise. She’s the Democrat who has the most to show for her efforts. BEST REPUBLICAN GINA SWOBODA Though we’re handing Swoboda this title, Republican voters clearly don’t agree — they overwhelmingly voted against Swoboda in favor of far-right, election-denying state Rep. Alexander Kolodin in the GOP primary for Secretary of State. That’s a shame. Had Swoboda advanced to face Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes, that showdown would have a much less apocalyptic feel. The former Arizona Republican Party chair is an interesting contradiction: She’s a big Trump supporter whose name the president repeat- edly drops, but she’s not wholly MAGA- brained. A former elections worker and a genuinely nice person, Swoboda knows elec- tion systems inside and out and rejects the stolen-election conspiracy theories that have come to define her party under Trump. Also, she has been openly disdainful of Turning Point USA and its hold on Arizona politics, which wins lots of points in our book. It also probably cost her the primary. i i i BEST FEUD MARK KELLY VS. PETE HEGSETH Welcome to How to Accidentally Turn Someone Into a Presidential Candidate. I’m Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War and Overcompensating for Something, and I’ll be your instructor. Here are the basics: Say a relatively anonymous lawmaker — maybe Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran — makes a video saying something relatively benign, like Hey, troops, be sure to not follow illegal orders, thanks. You take that, inten- tionally mangle its meaning and then try to demote the guy in retirement for offending your big orange boss. Next, like an inept bomb technician, watch it blow up in your face. Not only will a court smack you down for the obvious free speech infringement, but you’ll watch this bald-headed, low-T schlub rake in millions in donations, setting him up for a run at the White House in 2028. With your job oafishly done, relax by firing some missiles at Iranian schools. BEST LAWSUIT MAGNET SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY You know what SAE stands for, right? Sued A lot, uh, Epsilon. Maybe the plastered boors in Arizona State University’s most infamous fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, can come up with something better, but we’re betting they’re too busy devising hazing schemes and sending around unsolicited nudes of female classmates. The frat, which has been kicked off campus, is currently fighting two lawsuits related to those allegations. In one, former pledges detail a rigorous hazing regime that included the forced ingestion of super-spicy cheese balls and copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. In the other, a student says SAE brothers disseminated a nude video of hers, taken without her knowl- edge, as part of a hazing ritual. The frat is also facing a lawsuit after another student broke her foot jumping off the roof at an off- campus party — she was aiming for the pool but missed — though we’re not sure that one should really be pinned on the good ol’ brothers of Swigging Alcohol Everyday. i i i BEST MISREADING THE MOMENT DAVID SCHWEIKERT A year ago, the GOP race for Arizona governor was a two-person contest. There was Rep. Andy Biggs, the Turning Point USA favorite. And there was Karrin Taylor Robson, the lobbyist and previous gubernatorial candidate with a rich war chest. Both had Donald Trump’s endorsement. Into that fray stepped Rep. David Schweikert, a wonky uber-conser- vative whose personality consists of screaming about the national debt. Despite Robson even- tually dropping out of the race, Schweikert’s campaign was dead on arrival. Positioning himself as the sane person’s choice, the long- time congressman insisted only he could win a general election fight against Gov. Katie Hobbs. Problem is, you have to convince primary voters of that, and Schweikert never did. He struggled to raise money and get atten- tion, and when votes were tallied, he’d handed Biggs a win by the largest margin for a non- incumbent gubernatorial race in state history. In the process, Schweikert abandoned his long-held seat in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, giving Democrats their best chance to flip it in November.