Dem Whitten launches bid against Lesko for House seat

Democrat Greg Whitten has announced a campaign to attempt to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.

In a campaign-launch video, Whitten talked about how his late mother’s struggle with opioid addiction is motivating his run for Congress, saying she is the one who pushed him to succeed.

“Sure enough, with her help, I made it,” Whitten, a 39-year-old biosecurity worker, said in the video.

He blamed Washington politicians for allowing drug companies to earn billions of dollars off addicts like his mother, “while people like my mom paid the price.”

“My mom is gone now, but the fight isn’t over,” he said.

Lesko has simply towed the Republican Party line, Whitten said, and he will bring change.

“Send me to Congress, and I’ll bring people together,” he said. “It’s my promise to my mom’s legacy, and it’s my promise to you.”

Any Democrat hoping to unseat Lesko, who served in the state Legislature before going to Washington in 2018, will face an uphill battle in the predominantly conservative West Valley district.

Two Democrats who challenged her as write-in candidates in 2022 hardly registered 7,000 votes between them, or about 190,000 fewer than Lesko’s total.

In 2020, Lesko defeated her Democratic opponent, Michael Muscato, with about 252,000 votes to his roughly 171,000.

Whitten criticized Lesko’s recent vote against a funding measure in Congress that prevented a government shutdown from starting Sunday. Lesko was among 90 House Republicans who voted against the measure.

Lesko said that ensuring military and Border Patrol agents get paid was her priority, which was inconsistent with her vote because a shutdown could have forced those people to work without a paycheck.

Whitten slammed her vote.

“It’s irresponsible and a failure of leadership to hold our seniors, military families and neighbors hostage for a political stunt,” Whitten said of Lesko’s vote against the funding measure.