A southern Arizona Member of Congress responded to an insult from a Democrat surrogate in the closing days of the 2024 General Election.
Last week, U.S. Congressman Juan Ciscomani issued a statement in reaction to comments made by Mark Cuban, who is supporting the Democrat candidate for President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Cuban, who was on The View, ignited national outrage when he said, “Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever.”
Soon after those words from Cuban were uttered, Ciscomani posted a picture of a number of women around him, including his wife and daughter, writing, “Proud to have strong and intelligent women supporting our campaign and defending this seat. I was raised by a strong woman, am married to a strong woman, and honored to have the support of strong women!”
Proud to have strong and intelligent women supporting our campaign and defending this seat.
I was raised by a strong woman, am married to a strong woman, and honored to have the support of strong women! 💪🇺🇸 #AZ06pic.twitter.com/njwaDmiwnN
Ciscomani’s wife, Laura, also responded to Cuban, saying, “First woman in my family to obtain higher ed, graduated from Stanford with high honors, and I have master’s degree too. By the way, I can deadlift more than what Mark Cuban weighs.”
First woman in my family to obtain higher ed, graduated from Stanford with high honors, and I have a master’s degree too.
The freshman Republican legislator is locked in a heated battle for a reelection bid with Democrat Kirsten Engel – a rematch from the 2022 November General Election. That year, Ciscomani won by fewer than 6,000 votes.
Ciscomani has received a number of endorsements from local and national organizations for his reelection bid, including the Tucson Police Officers Association, National Border Patrol Council, AZCOPS, Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Americans for Prosperity, National Federation of Independent Business, Republican Jewish Coalition, and AIPAC. Individuals supporting Ciscomani include Greenlee County Sheriff PJ Allred, Town of Willcox Mayor Mike Laws, City of Benson Mayor Joe Konrad, and City of Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland.
Dozens & dozens of local leaders plus community & national organizations have ENDORSED our campaign for #AZ06.
I am proud to have the support of mayors, supervisors, moms, veterans, seniors, Border Patrol agents, mail letter carriers, farmers, ranchers, law enforcement & more!🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/FfkLorq0rf
The winner of this contest for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District will be critical for control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 119th Congress.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) released a new advertising campaign Thursday taking aim at the enormous economic fallout of the Biden-Harris administration’s fiscal policies. Those policies are also supported by Ciscomani’s Democrat opponent, former Arizona State Senator Kirsten Engel.
Sharing the new ad in a post to X, Ciscomani wrote, “Arizonans are feeling the impact of rising prices, an open border, and out-of-touch politicians pushing failed policies. My opponent, Kirsten Engel, supports the reckless spending that got us here. ‘It’s exactly what we need,’ said Engel. I’m focused on real solutions: bringing costs down, securing our border, and standing up for Arizona families. Watch my latest ad to learn more. #AZ06”
According to a campaign press release, the advertisement is designed to capture, “everyday struggles Arizonans face: rising costs, an open border, and out-of-touch D.C. politicians who continue to push policies that worsen inflation.”
The partisans love to talk without making any progress. As Arizona's most bipartisan member of Congress, I'm delivering results: ✅Better water infrastructure ✅Improved roads ✅Secure border And… 🇺🇸Endorsed by 40+ local leaders, police, border agents, & small businesses
As reported by the Common Sense Institute of Arizona, as of September 2024, the average Phoenix household is spending $1,004/month more than they would have at a 2% inflation rate.
The CSI of AZ reported, “Since the end of 2020, the typical Arizona household would have had to spend a cumulative $39,722 more on food, housing, transportation, and other goods and services to buy the same stuff as they were buying three years ago.”
“In Congress, I’ve been focused on delivering real solutions for Arizona – securing the border, cutting wasteful spending, and lowering taxes for middle-class families,” Ciscomani said in a statement. “My opponent, Kirsten Engel, supports the same reckless, inflation-driving policies that have made it harder for Arizonans to afford everyday essentials. We need leadership that understands our struggles and is willing to take decisive action, not another out-of-touch politician who rubber-stamps the failed policies that got us here.”
Citing Engel’s legislative history of voting against essential measures like the Border Strike Force, Ciscomani continued, “Kirsten Engel’s out-of-touch record speaks for itself. From voting against border security measures to advocating for reckless spending, Engel has proven time and again that she would fit right in with the D.C. politicians who have failed Arizona families.”
Shortly after releasing the ad, Ciscomani addressed the tightly choreographed “Border Visit” conducted by Vice President Kamala Harris in a statement to KVOA saying, “Vice President Harris’ visit to the border smells like nothing more than a photo opportunity to try and score political points. For three and a half years, the vice president has been in a position to address this crisis but instead she has ignored it. As a result border districts, like mine, have suffered under her lack of leadership. Our communities have become less safe and vulnerable people are being exploited by coyotes, human smugglers, drug cartels, and transnational criminal organizations. If she was truly serious about addressing the crisis at the border, she would have done something as the sitting vice president to help border communities that have been calling for help.”
With the election drawing near, Democratic congressional candidate Kirsten Engel is admitting more often that the situation at the border constitutes a crisis.
Engel initially denied the existence of any crisis at the border for several years after leaving the State Senate to launch her first congressional run in 2021. In a NOTUS article published on Monday, reporters took away from their interview with Engel that she maintained that same perspective until her campaign asked for a correction.
“She has refrained from calling the situation on the border a ‘crisis,’” read the initial reporting. “Engel told NOTUS she didn’t feel her own campaign was shifting much from her last run.”
The correction simply deleted that first statement and quoted to readers the opening line of an opinion piece she wrote for the Arizona Republic in February. However, the Engel campaign also maintained that she wasn’t shifting policy positions much from her first run.
“Arizona Democrat Kirsten Engel has referred to the situation at the border as a ‘crisis’ during her 2024 campaign,” read the correction. “This run, she’s emphasized how important issues at the border are repeatedly, penning an op-ed that said ‘for far too long, southern Arizona has shouldered the brunt of our nation’s border crisis.’”
As part of her last run, Engel signaled support for bringing an end to Title 42, which expelled illegal immigrants back to the country from which they entered the United States. These expulsions lasted from March 2020 and ended in May 2023 according to the Customs and Border Protection.
Engel said in 2022 that the massive uptick of illegal immigrants didn’t constitute a crisis.
Engel’s platform this go around mentions increasing manpower, technology, and security measures at the border. This part of her platform doesn’t mention building the last of the wall along the border, a security measure she criticized as outdated during her last campaign.
The bulk of that opinion piece criticized her opponent, incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani, for refusing to back the $118 billion foreign aid bill which, in part, provided funding for the border ($20 billion). The main purpose of the bill was to provide additional funding for Ukraine — $60 billion — with the remainder allocated to other humanitarian aid and conflicts overseas.
Leading authorities on the border, such as the National Border Patrol Council, gave reluctant support for the foreign aid bill. That authority’s president, Brandon Judd, said that the Biden administration’s border policy had forced them to accept anything in the way of promising border security.
The $118 billion foreign aid bill was styled as a bipartisan bill because of its formation by independent Senator Kirsten Sinema, along with Republican Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
Ciscomani has made use of Engel’s repeated past denials of the border crisis in campaign material. The border is a top issue of concern for voters. A poll released last week by Noble Predictive Insights found that over half of voters (63 percent) supported increased border security measures, namely Proposition 314 — the “Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure” that would allow state and local law enforcement to arrest those who violate migration laws as well as allow state judges to issue deportation orders.
Unlike Engel, Ciscomani’s policy platform does advocate for building the remainder of the border wall. Ciscomani also supports ending the catch and release practice of illegal immigrants, ending the exploitation of parole authority, reinstating former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, and expanding expedited removal authority.
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A Saturday night announcement from Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes confirmed that the radical-left, “Eco-Socialist” Green Party’s eight candidates will be moving ahead with a write-in strategy for the November general election.
According to its website the Green Party advocates for “a just transition to a democratically controlled eco-socialist economy through a Green New Deal,” as well as “’Degrowth’ policies to reduce overproduction, overconsumption, and waste,” and espouses “Social Justice & Equality For All,” as well as “Feminism And Gender Equity.”
As reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, the write-in candidates were not included in the official Arizona primary canvass owing to a clerical error, citing an Aug. 17th press release from the Secretary of State’s office.
“A write-in candidate for a newly recognized political party must receive a plurality of the votes of the party for the office for which the candidate is competing for,” reads the press release. “A party with continued representation requires at least as many votes as they would have had petition signatures. The winning candidates in the Primary all receive certificates of nomination in the days after the canvass and these Green candidates who won their party nomination are included.”
Secretary Fontes also ran afoul of the Green Party earlier this month when he declared the wrong Green Party winner in the U.S. Senate primary as reported by KJZZ.
🚨 BREAKING: The AZ Secretary of State's is doing anything but restoring confidence in our elections!🚨
Adrian Fontes ADMITTED to declaring the WRONG Green Party winner in the U.S. Senate primary?
Green Party write-in candidate Eduardo Quintana said at the time, “We’re supposed to be able to run for office when we disagree on certain policies, and the public compares our opinions and decides who to vote for, and we’re elected in a Democratic way.”
The Green Party at present has just 100 elected officials in office nationwide, and Arizona has never had a Green Party candidate win an election for state or federal office.
Green party write-in candidates moving on to general election:
Eduardo Quintana, U.S. Senate – Eduardo Quitaro is running for the Arizona U.S. Senator open seat against Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego. According to Quintana’s campaign website, he is running with the Arizona Green Party to “offer a political choice outside our failed two-party system careening towards nuclear war and environmental catastrophe.” Quintana’s priorities include ending the Israeli/Palestinian war, phasing out the burning of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy sources, and transitioning to an eco-socialist economy, among others.
Vincent Beck-Jones, Congressional District 4 U.S. Representative – Vincent Beck-Jones will be running for Congressional District 4 U.S. Representative. He will face incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton and Republican Kelly Cooper. According to Cooper’s campaign website, he is firmly standing on a Green Party platform. “Our country was once based on ideals of freedom and choice,” reads his website. “But, for 237 years we have been held to an Us vs Them system. A duopoly of politics where the two parties are merely just opposite sides of a single coin. We are left choosing which option seems less detrimental to us. This isn’t a real choice. Without choice we have no freedom.”
Athena Eastwood, Congressional District 6 U.S. Representative – Write-in Green Party Candidate Athena Eastwood will be moving on to the general election running for U.S. representative for Congressional District 6. She will go up against Republican Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel.
Tre Rook, Legislative District 8 State Representative – Tre Rook is running as a write-in Green Party candidate in the general election. Two candidates will be elected for each legislative district and Rook will be going up against Republican Caden Darrow and Democrats Brian Garcia and Janeen Connolly in the general election.
Cody Hannah, Legislative District 3 State Representative – Cody Hannah, a student and activist, is one of the youngest people running for a legislative office in Arizona. He is running on the Green Party platform and will be moving on to the general election where he will be running against Republican Jeff Weninger and Democrat Brandy Reese. “Cody is a committed advocate for people, planet, and peace, and he is ready to both work with and stand against the Democrats and Republicans in the AZ Legislature in order to fight for the needs of working class Arizonans and our environment,” reads Hannah’s campaign website.
Scott Menor, Legislative District 14 State Representative – Scott Menor, a write-in Green Party candidate, will be running against Republicans Laurin Hendrix and Khyl Powell in the general election. Menor said that by running for LD 14 state representative, he hopes to “break the duopoly. I can represent you and give you an outsized voice as a tipping-point-independent in the Arizona State House,” reads his campaign website. Menor’s other priorities include electoral reform, universal healthcare, education, basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, housing, mobility and autonomy, and access to abortion.
Mike Cease & Nina Luxenberg, Corporation Commission – Mike Cease and Nina Luxenberg are the Green Party candidates running for one of the three open seats as Arizona corporation commissioner. The other candidates they will be running against include Republicans Rachel Walden, Rene Lopez, and Lea Marquez Peterson, and Democrats Ylenia Aguilar, Jonathan Hill, and Joshua Polacheck.
The 2024 Arizona Primary Election for Southern Arizona’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives involved races that were mostly uncontested or lightly contested with the notable exception of District 6. That race, between incumbent Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and challenger Kathleen Winn, was more energetic, and will now be followed by what could be a staunch challenge from Democrat Kirsten Engel.
While the results are not finalized in many of the races, according to state and county officials, the unofficial results stand thusly as of noon on July 31 according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Jeff Zink won the Arizona Congressional Primary for District 3, vacated by Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego, against Jesus David Mendoza, 65.6%-34.4%, by a margin of 3,720 votes.
Zink is expected to face off against Yassamin Ansari who defeated Raquel Terán to win the Democratic nomination in a close 46.1%-42.7% race by a margin of 1,185.
According to Cook Political, District 3 leans heavily Democrat D+24
Republican Kelly Cooper defeated Dr. Zuhdi Jasser in a six-point race, 32.2%-26.8%, with a margin of 2,692 in Democrat-held District 4.
Cooper will challenge incumbent Congressman Greg Stanton who ran unopposed.
According to Cook Political, District 2 is solidly Democrat but only holds a D+2 rating, indicating a possible vulnerability for House Democrats. Cooper was previously defeated by Stanton in 2022 in a 12-point race by a margin of 32,420 votes, a massive decrease from Stanton’s 2020 23-point, six-figure margin prior to redistricting.
Dr. Jasser posted to X Thursday acknowledging his defeat in the race and issued a full statement. He wrote, “A humble thank you to all our supporters after a hard fought primary election battle for Arizona’s 4th Congressional District. I congratulate @KellyCooperAZ and wish him and his family the best in retiring the empty suited Biden rubber stamper @RepGregStanton from office.”
Cooper replied, “It was honor to run against you, I know we have the same goals, make Arizona better. I look forward to bringing unity to the Republican Party and winning in November!”
A humble thank you to all our supporters after a hard fought primary election battle for Arizona’s 4th Congressional District. I congratulate @KellyCooperAZ and wish him and his family the best in retiring the empty suited Biden rubber stamper @RepGregStanton from office.
Reps. Andy Biggs, a Republican, and Katrina Schaffner, a Democrat, won their respective nominations in unopposed District 5 primaries and will face off in the general election.
According to Cook Political, District 5 is solidly Republican R+11
Incumbent Congressman Juan Ciscomani defeated challenger Kathleen Winn in a 59.4%-40.6% race by a margin of 16,344.
Ciscomani will be challenged by Democrat Kirsten Engel in November who won the Democratic nomination unopposed.
Cook Political, considers District 6 to be a Republican Toss-up R+3
Forecasting from The Hill gives Ciscomani a 71% chance of retaining his seat.
Republican Daniel Butierez, Sr., and incumbent Democrat Congressman Raúl Grijalva, were unopposed in their District 7 primaries and will face each other in the general election.
Cook Political, has District 7 projected as solidly Democratic at D+15
