Kirkpatrick joins field challenging McSally

Former congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick is entering the Democratic race to challenge U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, setting up what could be among the nation’s fiercest House fights next year.

Months after losing handily to Sen. John McCain, Kirkpatrick has moved from the rural northeastern Arizona district she represented in Congress for six years to the southern district that includes parts of Tucson, the state’s second-most populous city.

She joins an already-crowded field of Democrats, suggesting early energy on the left to face off with McSally, a Republican who easily won a second term in November only to see her approval rating sink after tying herself to the unpopular GOP health-care plan.

“I’ve been hearing from folks for months that there’s so much at stake for our country right now: health care, the climate, our standing in the world, even the very fundamentals of democracy. They want a leader in Congress who can be a check on (President) Donald Trump,” Kirkpatrick, 67, said in an interview with The Arizona Republic.

She called McSally “one of the ringleaders” in the GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Kirkpatrick helped pass in 2010.

A crowded field

Matt Heinz, the Tucson doctor and former state lawmaker who lost to her last year, is running again. So is Bruce Wheeler, another former state lawmaker, Mary Matiella, a retired assistant secretary of the Army, and several others.

While the Democrats have numbers, it remains to be seen whether they can raise the money and votes needed to retake a seat that offers a window into the difficulty of winning back the House of Representatives.

Kirkpatrick enters her sixth race for federal office with more experience in Washington than McSally, and her vote for the ACA would bring a sharp contrast with McSally’s support for the GOP plan.

But Kirkpatrick will also face questions about political opportunism by running in a new district and whether a three-term congressional veteran can bring something new to the legislative mix.

Kirkpatrick said she has family in the Tucson area and went to school and worked there at times in her life. She said she thinks she has deeper roots in the district than McSally and welcomes