Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani wins reelection in Tucson-area district

Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani has secured his reelection win over Democrat Kirsten Engel, who conceded the race for Congressional District 6 on Wednesday.

The race had been too close to call since election night, when Engel initially had a lead over Ciscomani. Unofficial results from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office now show Ciscomani with 49.7% of votes and a more than 6,800-vote lead over Engel as of Wednesday afternoon.

Ciscomani said Engel had called to concede the race and congratulate him.

“Laura and I are deeply grateful to the people of Arizona’s 6th District, and honored by the trust they’ve placed in me to continue representing our community in Congress,” Ciscomani said in a written statement on behalf of himself and his wife.

He said his top priorities for his second term are “securing our border, lowering costs, and ensuring that our veterans and seniors are protected and valued,” as well as strengthening the state’s water infrastructure.

“The American Dream is a promise that every American deserves a fair shot at building a better life,” Ciscomani said. “As I return to Washington, I promise to bring the voice of Arizona’s 6th District with me and to work across the aisle to keep that dream within reach for Arizonans. Thank you for your support, your trust, and your partnership. Let’s get back to work!”

Engel, who narrowly lost to Ciscomani in 2022, conceded the election in a Wednesday statement.

“The voters have made their decision and we must respect it,” Engel said. “While we came up short, I couldn’t be prouder of the work we put in to give voice to the needs and aspirations of Southern Arizonans in Washington. … “I am deeply grateful for all of the time and effort everyone contributed to building such a strong campaign that reached every corner of this district. … It has been an honor to be the Democratic nominee for Congress and, although this campaign is over, my work to make life better for Arizonans will continue.”

Ciscomani is the first naturalized citizen from Mexico to represent Arizona in the U.S. Congress. In the early 1990s, his family immigrated from Hermosillo, Sonora, to Tucson, when Ciscomani was 11, and he became a U.S. citizen 13 years later.

“My personal experience with the immigration system directly influences my views and policy positions,” Ciscomani said in a Sept. 30 statement to the Arizona Daily Star. “Finding solutions to this issue, which has been ignored by both sides of the aisle, is personal to me and one of the main reasons I ran for Congress.”

Ciscomani will likely beat Engel by a more comfortable margin than in their 2022 match-up, when Ciscomani won by about 5,200 votes in the district, which includes parts of Tucson and has voters in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima and Pinal counties.

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Engel, a professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Law and a former state legislator, had been optimistic that her second run against Ciscomani would be more successful than her first.

In the close race, “I was very much outspent by outside Republican Super PAC money that flooded this district against me,” Engel told the Star in September. “This time around, I think we’ve got a lot of support both at the grassroots level and we also have support at the national level for my campaign.”

Green Party candidate Athena Eastwood got about 9,400 votes in this year’s District 6 race, a few thousand more than the margin between Ciscomani and Engel.

Ciscomani, who endorsed President-elect Donald Trump in this year’s presidential race, has told the Star he’s in favor of improving the “outdated, slow, bureaucratic, and expensive” U.S. immigration system. He’s also said he supports a path to permanency for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Ciscomani’s office did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for an interview on Wednesday.

Despite his endorsement of Trump, Ciscomani identifies as a moderate and has touted his recognition as the most bipartisan member of Arizona’s House delegation in a May analysis from the Lugar Center and Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Bipartisan Index.

When Trump takes office in January and starts pressing legislators to support his agenda, Ciscomani will likely have to tread lightly to avoid alienating moderate voters he’ll need in the future, said Spencer Lindsay, an assistant professor of practice in the University of Arizona’s School of Government and Public Policy.

“It’s going to be really interesting because he (Ciscomani) has pressures from the party to stay in line, but he’s also gonna face reelection in two years in a swing district,” said Lindsay, whose research topics include American democracy, racial politics and political behavior.

Trump will have pretty narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress, he said.

“When you talk about some of Trump’s agenda, like dealing with the elimination of the Department of Education, and perhaps funding the mass deportations, it’s going to be hard to get that stuff through the House if he only has a couple votes to spare,” Lindsay said. “And there are a lot of members in Ciscomani’s shoes that have to go up for reelection in swing districts in 2026.”