AZ representatives sweep

Unofficial election results show all of Arizona’s congressional incumbents defeating their challengers and keeping their seats.

All of Arizona’s congressional incumbents defeated their challengers Tuesday, Nov. 3, in a sweep that left both parties eyeing once-enticing races that ultimately slipped away.

Unofficial results show Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., defeated Democrat Hiral Tipirneni in the race for the Scottsdale-based 6th Congressional District.

At the same time, Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., held off Republican Tiffany Shedd in the 1st Congressional District that spans northeastern Arizona.

Schweikert survived 11 ethics violations and a sizable cash deficit to hold on to the district he has represented since it was created in 2012. In the end, the Republicans’ 12-percentage point registration advantage helped him stave off defeat in the the kind of suburban, college-educated district that has moved away from President Donald Trump in recent years.

Meanwhile, O’Halleran also survived the rightward drift of his largely rural district. Trump won there by 1 percentage point in 2016, and Shedd was unburdened by the personal and ideological problems that plagued O’Halleran’s first two GOP opponents. But Shedd could not keep pace with O’Halleran’s campaign war chest and his personal appeal from years of town halls across the far-flung district.

The results mean Democrats still hold a 5-4 advantage in the House from its Arizona contingent in January.

The outcome of Arizona’s seven other House races went as expected.

Democrats Ruben Gallego, Raúl Grijalva, Ann Kirkpatrick and Greg Stanton won handily to remain in Congress.

Republicans Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko also were reelected without drama.

Schweikert’s district has usually been safe ground for Republicans, but his ethics probe and the district’s college-educated demographics gave Democrats hope they could win there.

Schweikert has represented the 6th District since it was created ahead of the 2012 elections. He won his first three races there by an average of 27 percentage points.

In 2018, after the opening of an ethics investigation for misspending by his campaign and congressional office, Schweikert won by just 10 points.

Tipirneni ran that year as well, in the 8th Congressional District where she lives. She lost the special election to replace former Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who resigned midterm over allegations of sexual misconduct. Tipirneni also lost a rematch in November to Lesko.

This year, Tipirneni was one of the nation’s best-funded challengers running for the House, and Schweikert was one of the worst-funded incumbents in a competitive election. The five-term lawmaker found the GOP’s 12 percentage-point registration advantage served as a firewall.

Meanwhile, the close race in the 1st District is nothing new.

O’Halleran has faced tight contests there in years past against GOP candidates with significant personal or ideological baggage. Shedd, a lawyer and cotton farmer, was a less-controversial opponent.

O’Halleran had a substantial cash advantage over Shedd in their race, and Republicans were slow to invest in that contest, though that changed by the end.

Democrats had a 4 percentage point registration advantage entering Election Day, and they had won all four elections since the district took its current shape.

But that obscures the reality that Democratic margins have shrunk in the 1st District, and, like much of rural

America, it is

Republicans.

Since the August primary, the GOP closed the voter gap there by another 3,000 people, suggesting the Republican brand still has plenty of appeal in that part of the state.

O’Halleran had the closest House race in Arizona in 2018, when he won by nearly 8 points, or 20,000 votes.

Among the other races, perhaps Lesko’s race in the northwest Valley’s 8th District was the most compelling.

In her first two elections, Lesko won by surprisingly narrow margins in both her races in 2018 given the lopsided registration advantage Republicans have there.

But Lesko easily defeated Democrat Michael Muscato to win a second full term in the House.

Kirkpatrick won a second term in her Tucson-based 2nd Congressional District by defeating Republican Brandon Martin. She won three terms representing the 1st District before moving to Tucson.

Her easy win cemented the leftward shift for voters in a part of the state that provided a pair of epic finishes in 2012 and 2014.

Stanton won a second term by defeating Republican Dave Giles in the 9th

increasingly

friendly

to

Congressional District that runs through north-central Phoenix down to Chandler. Once again, that district, originally seen as competitive when it was created in 2012, provided another easy win for Democrats.

The other four House races involved heavily partisan-leaning districts.

In the 5th Congressional District that covers the southeast Valley, Biggs easily defeated Democrat Joan Greene for the second election in a row to win a third term in the House.

Gosar also breezed past Democrat Delina DiSanto in the 4th Congressional District that spans northwestern Arizona and is the state’s most-Republicanleaning.

Gallego easily won a fourth term by dispatching Republican Josh Barnett in the 7th Congressional District that includes downtown Phoenix and the southwest Valley. It is the state’s mostDemocratic-leaning district.

Grijalva, who is the dean of Arizona’s congressional delegation, won a 10th term by defeating Republican Daniel Wood in the 3rd District, which includes part of Tucson, west to Yuma.