Matt Heinz will again challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally for the Arizona Congressional District 2 seat.
The Tucson Democrat, who works as an emergency room physician, made the announcement on Tuesday, saying the highly-competitive congressional district deserves a change in leadership.
βI think the problem is not a lot has changed,β he said. βThere is a lot of people who are still hurting and being hurt by the dysfunction in Washington.β
Heinz, who got 43 percent of the vote last November, says he took a lot of time after losing to McSally to consider whether he would run against her again.
Some of his patients helped convince him to run, he said.
Many would want to talk about local or even national politics instead of their pressing medical condition that brought them into the emergency room, he said.
Many told Heinz they really regret not voting for him, he said.
Heinz said he has seen the level of activism rise in the district since President Trump took office.
βThere is a palpable kind of change,β he said.
This also means thereβs a renewed focused on McSally.
Her vote to back the American Health Care Act was particularly troubling, he said, because it will leave many residents in the district without insurance.
Heinz will enter an already crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination in 2018. There are eight Democrats who have either announced they are running or are testing the waters.
They are: small-business owner Billy Kovacs, geologist Alison Jones, pilot Jeff Latas, former Assistant Secretary of the Army Mary Matiella, small-business owner Charlie Verdin, Tucson resident Chris Wright, and former state Rep. Bruce Wheeler.
With roughly 19 months before the general election, Heinz will also have to focus heavily on raising money.
McSally, who raised $7.9 million during the last campaign, already has $631,114 in her campaign war chest, according to the Federal Election Commission.
