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 new ad from incumbent Congressman Juan Ciscomani against Democratic opponent Kirsten Engel features clips of her denying the ongoing border crisis and issuing support for police defunding.
The ad featured several flashbacks from Engel on her positions ranging from her time as a state lawmaker through her first run for Congress against Ciscomani in 2022.
The former state lawmaker and University of Arizona law professor denied that Arizona had an immigration crisis during that first run for Congress. Engel said that physical barriers like walls weren’t a solution for her, and that the greater focus should be on providing greater aid to those arriving at our border rather than detainment.
“We do not need help at our border. We do need to secure the border. We have issues of drug trafficking and human smuggling that need to be addressed, but certainly not walls,” said Engel. “What we need from Washington is having an orderly asylum process. That’s national law, that’s international law. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We have to help our Dreamers.”
As a remedy to the border, Engel has advocated for border policy approaches favoring those who arrive in the nation outside the legal avenues for entry: an end to Title 42, legal pathways to citizenship, and deprioritizing illegal migration outside legal ports of entry.
Thank you so much to Sheriff Dannels and his team for the tour and sharing the daily challenges at our southern border. Our local law enforcement risk their lives every day – Congress needs to stop playing politics, reject inaction, and come together to address this crisis. pic.twitter.com/jyUCYtPtgh
Engel maintains these positions as defining her vision for securing the southern border. She has also criticized Ciscomani for not supporting a proposed bill to provide $20 billion for the border out of $118 billion in expenditures. That bill was mainly designed to ensure an additional provision of aid to Ukraine, $60 billion, and the remainder of the $38 billion given in aid to other foreign countries.
While Engel has been outspoken in recent years about border policy, she has distanced herself from conversations on policing since the BLM fallout after George Floyd’s death in 2020 and the conviction of responding officer Derek Chauvin less than a year later.
I hope this verdict is the start of our justice system finally turning the corner and holding law enforcement accountable for unjustified acts of violence against members of the black community. #BlackLivesMatter
Engel advocated for police defunding during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, arguing that there needed to be less police available for responding to emergency calls and more alternatives.
“What we need to do is shift where the money [for police] is going,” said Engel. “Not every 911 call requires a police officer to show up at your door.”
In that same interview, Engel affirmed when she was asked whether she supported a reduction in police budgets.
“Yeah, the way you’ve asked that question, I agree with it,” said Engel.
Instead, Engel proposed that social workers should take over for police officers.
It was also during the peak point of BLM upheaval in the summer of 2020 that Engel publicly backed a claim by Tucson Councilwoman Lane Santa Cruz that Tucson police officers were to blame for the death of a man in their custody in April of that year.
Santa Cruz’s public accusations of wrongdoing prompted the officers to resign out of fear for their families’ safety.
The man, Carlos Ingram-Lopez, died from cardiac arrest due to acute levels of cocaine in his system and an enlarged heart.
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In the political fallout that has followed President Joe Biden’s abysmal showing at CNN’s first 2024 Presidential debate, the National Republican Congressional Committee has called upon Kirsten Engel, the Democrat challenger to Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ06), to answer for Biden’s perceived “senility.”
At a recent Biden campaign rally, Engel was recorded saying, “I’m be so happy to be part of the Biden-Harris coordinated team,” and leading the supporters in attendance along with Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ4) in chants of “Four more years!”
WATCH: Extreme Kirsten Engel says "I'm be so happy to be part of the Biden-Harris coordinated team"
In a press release Friday, NRCC Spokesman Ben Petersen said, “Extreme liberal Kirsten Engel stands with brain-addled Biden, not Southern Arizonans. Engel chooses her lock-step loyalty to Biden over the truth, leaving our border open, inflation raging and our nation in peril.”
The last messaging from Engel’s X account urges supporters to support a pro-abortion ballot initiative, and makes no mention of the octogenarian incumbent currently occupying the top of a highly vulnerable Democrat ticket.
The emphasis on the pro-abortion campaign is also curious for Engel. On June 17, the New York Post reported that abortion is “not a factor” in the District 6 race, noting that an internal Public Opinion Strategies poll obtained by the Post put Ciscomani, a Mexican-American at a comfortable 11 point lead with 50% over Engel, who sits at non-threatening 39%.
Daniel Scarpinato, Ciscomani for Congress’ general consultant, told the outlet, “Juan’s message of the American Dream is resonating among all Arizonans, Republican, Democrat and independent.”
“We are encouraged by these incredibly strong numbers early in the race, but we also know national Democrats will stop at nothing to prop up Engel and her extreme positions on immigration and the economy.”
Following the debacle surrounding Arizona’s 19th century abortion ban, which was settled in the Supreme Court in April, Sabato’s Crystal Ball ranked District 6 as a “toss-up,” however the latest polls seem to belie that.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Lauryn Fanguen suggested at the time that “Juan Ciscomani has an extremely unpopular anti-abortion record and has been actively working against the best interest of Arizonans in Congress.” She added, “When voters hear about his votes to take away their reproductive rights and willingness to play partisan politics with the border, they will reject him and his far-right agenda.”
The Post observed that abortion was not at the top of voters concerns based on the internal poll with inflation taking top rank at 25% and immigration and border security taking second billing at 19%. Just 9% gave abortion as the top issue.
Congressional candidate and University of Arizona law school professor Kirsten Engel has refused to stand by Israel as her alma maters, Northwestern University and Brown University, blow up with antisemitic protests, a new report shows.
“Kirsten Engel is not a fighter for Arizona, she is a scared politician who is too afraid of the extreme left to speak up against antisemitism,” National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement.
Engel has “been silent in the face of protests taking place at their alma mater.”
Engel is running to represent Arizona’s sixth district. She is a former legislator, Charles E. Ares Professor of Law at the James E. Rogers College of Law, and an environmental lawyer.
She received her undergraduate degree from Brown and her J.D. from Northwestern.
Students at Northwestern set up an encampment on school grounds to demand the administration divest from Israel. Terrorist sympathizers even became violent with police officers.
At Brown, students also set up a pro-Palestine encampment, which they agreed to clear April 30.
Students across the country are skipping classes and final exams to protest on behalf of Hamas-controlled Palestine.
At Columbia University, students took over Hamilton Hall overnight, barricading themselves inside. At the University of Texas, more than 80 arrests have occurred.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
