Emma Bradford
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Hoping to break the GOP grip on Congress, Democrats are aiming to topple three Republican incumbents in Arizona: Reps. David Schweikert, Eli Crane and Juan Ciscomani.
And they are betting on a backlash to President Donald Trump’s megabill, which will cut health coverage for millions of Americans while also easing taxes for the wealthy and adding $3.4 trillion to the federal debt.
“Any of them could have been the vote to stand up and prevent the bill from moving forward,” Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Wednesday. “They’re accountable for the impact on their communities, and we’re going to continue to make sure that people understand that.”
DelBene gave her assessment of the Arizona races over breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, in response to questions from Cronkite News.
The district that excites her most is Crane’s, she said – even though the Oro Valley Republican sailed to a second term in November with a 9 percentage point margin.
Crane’s opponent last fall, former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, announced a rematch effort on Tuesday. DelBene called Nez a “great candidate” who has a “huge opportunity” against “one of the most extreme Republicans” in Congress.
Crane, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, shrugged off the threat.
“Hey look, at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to what the people in the district want,” he told Cronkite News in a brief interview later at the Capitol. “I beat Jonathan Nez last cycle. I plan on doing it again.”
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates Crane’s seat as competitive but likely to remain in Republican hands.
Crane holds a huge fundraising edge: $2.4 million to less than $100,000 for Nez through midyear. In 2024, Crane outraised his rival $8.6 million to $5.5 million.
Cook rates the other two targeted seats in Arizona as outright toss-ups.
A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the DCCC’s counterpart, said the party isn’t worried about the Arizona seats, given Democratic infighting and ongoing GOP policy successes.
“It’s laughable that Democrats are again pinning their hopes on failed liberal career politician Jonathan Nez, who’s lost two prior races,” said NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen.
Apart from the House race last fall, Nez lost reelection in 2022 to the current Navajo president, Buu Nygren.
Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, was elected to Congress in 2010. He won his eighth term with a 3.8 percentage point margin over Democrat Amish Shah last fall, despite being outraised $5.8 million to $4.2 million.
The leading Democrat currently angling for Schweikert’s seat, businessman Jonathan Treble, has raised $329,000, adding personal loans that put his tally over $1 million. Schweikert has raised $1.5 million.
“We have a competitive primary and great candidates running in Schweikert’s seat,” DelBene said.
Ciscomani, a Tucson Republican, won his second term in November with a 3-point margin – the closest call for any of the six Arizona Republicans in Congress. Democrat Kristen Engel raised $8.5 million to his $7 million.
Through midyear, Ciscomani has raised $2.3 million. The best-funded Democrat in the 2026 field, JoAnna Mendoza, a Marine veteran and former congressional staffer, has raised $1.3 million.
“Those were close races,” DelBene said, but 2026 will be a “very different environment … because of all the broken promises from Republicans.”
The president’s party has lost House seats in all but three midterm elections in the last 90 years.
That gives Democrats reason for optimism about retaking the House, which Republicans hold by one of the narrowest margins in history.
The current split is 219-212 with four vacancies, including the seat left open in Arizona by the death of longtime Democrat Raúl Grijalva of Tucson in March. His daughter, Adelita Grijalva, won the nomination last week. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic, so she is heavily favored in a September special election to determine who serves out the rest of the term.
The DCCC is targeting 35 districts nationwide in 2026.
DelBene declined to say how much the party is prepared to spend in Arizona.
“Republicans are struggling, and the more they struggle, the more opportunities that … gives us,” she said, adding, “We will continue to look at all the races we’re in across the country, and put resources where they’re most needed.”
Democratic lawmakers have been trying to soften up the three targeted incumbents for next year.
Sen. Mark Kelly has highlighted Medicaid cuts with stops in Schweikert and Ciscomani’s districts, for instance.
First-term Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Phoenix Democrat, announced Tuesday that she will hold “Accountability Summer” town halls in Scottsdale, Flagstaff and Tucson through Aug. 2 – in her three GOP colleagues’ districts.
“I have witnessed every single Arizona Republican in Congress vote for Trump’s quote, unquote, Big Beautiful Bill,” she said in an interview. “Even the ones who said they wouldn’t or who expressed vast and deep concern with some of the provisions.”
“It’s incredibly important for Arizona voters to know exactly what’s in this bill, and for the constituents in these districts to hear from members of Congress,” she said.
The town halls are also a way of poking at her GOP colleagues for a lack of public meetings with their own constituents.
“We’re going to take the fight straight to their districts,” she said.
Washington correspondent Collin Hodge contributed reporting.
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