Kirsten Engel Shines in PBS Debate on the Congressional District 6 Race. CiscoMAGA Just Lied.

Congressional District 6 candidates faced off on PBS, as Juan Ciscomani defended his abysmal incumbency while challenger Kirsten Engel condemned his lack of accomplishments.

Engel, a law professor at the University of Arizona and former AZ state legislator, outlined her support for reproductive rights, a secure border and solving Arizona’s water shortage.

“Congressman Juan Ciscomani has failed us, siding with his MAGA party bosses in Washington, D.C., to raise prices, restrict abortion rights, and even reject a bipartisan deal to secure our border,” Engel said. “I’m running for their rights to health care, freedom to make their own decisions, and for all Arizonans.”

Abortion

Ciscomani notoriously celebrated the fall of Roe v. Wade in a 2022 post on X. But he waffled on his anti-abortion stance, claiming he opposed a national abortion ban. He said, “Let the states decide,” which has led to 24 states restricting abortion – including 14 with outright bans and no exceptions.

Engel nailed Ciscomani, saying, “I will go to Congress to fight for abortion rights, to restore the rights that women had for 50 years under Roe versus Wade. This is in total contrast to my opponent, who cheered the repeal of Roe versus Wade and, in Congress, has repeatedly voted to restrict abortion. He’s voted to restrict medication abortion, which is the safest form of abortion used in 60 percent of abortions using FDA-approved drugs.”

The Border

Ciscomani recounted his stale story of immigrating to the US from Mexico – but could not point to a single result he achieved on border security in Congress. “What we need to do is make sure that we secure our border,” he said without offering any specifics.

Engel hammered him for opposing a bipartisan border security bill favored by conservatives, which Ciscomani voted against on April 20, 2024. Ciscomani lied about the bill, claiming falsely that there was “widespread “broad opposition” to it.

“He gets handed on a silver platter a bipartisan deal to make immense progress on a top issue to all of this district. And he rejects it. He rejected it days after Trump came out against it. It is an obvious political ploy. He wants photo ops on the border and not actually solving the problem,” Engel said.

“The bipartisan support for this bill was amazing and immense. It was a deal that was negotiated by one of the most conservative members of the Senate, Senator Langford, by an independent and by a Democrat. It was supported by the Border Patrol Union. It had money for boots on the ground and thousands of new Customs and Border Patrol agents. It had money for scanners so that we could scan every single truck that comes across the border for fentanyl that is harming our communities, not just every one in 20. And it also had money for detention and for quick processing of migrants so that the Border Patrol enforcement could work on their job of fighting the cartels and protecting the border rather than processing the large number of migrants who come to our border,” she said.

Ciscomani lied and said the “border crisis” was created by policies that Engel once supported when she was a state legislator. Read The “Border Crisis” Only Exists in MAGA’s Propaganda and Lies. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, migrant apprehensions have dropped to the lowest level since Biden took office.

He lied again when he claimed that Engel wanted to abolish ICE and to defund the police. Engel responded, “There’s no truth to that. I have always supported funding the police. In the Arizona Legislature, I voted repeatedly to fund the police. It’s incredible to hear this from Congressman Ciscomani since he voted for some draconian budget bills that would have cut up to 30,000 Thousand law enforcement officers. So he’s no friend of the police. I’ve actually voted to support them, to fund them. I meet with them, and he’s just perverted my record.

Dangerous Patriot Academy

Ciscomani tried to change the subject when asked about the notorious Patriot Academy, which he founded in Arizona. It trains grade school children how to shoot to kill people, it opposes abortion and seeks to rewrite the Constitution to establish a Christian-only nation.

Engel pounced, saying, “Mr. Ciscomani has been a long-term member of the Patriot Academy. He was on their board of directors for 14 years. This is a Christian nationalist group with extremist views that does not believe in the separation of church and state which wants to rewrite the Constitution and which wants to ban abortion. He is actually putting the positions of this Patriot Academy into law in his position in Congress.”

Ciscomani closed by saying, “After you reelect me, I will continue, just like I am right now, I will continue to fight for the values that make our community such a special place.”

<Click here> for details on Ciscomani’s activity in the Patriot Academy.

In contrast, Engel outlined what she will do in Congress:

“I think you can see a pretty clear contrast between myself and Representative Ciscomani. I’m going to go to Congress to protect your reproductive health care decisions to protect women’s rights to make their own health care decisions with their doctor and with their family. My opponent will continue to vote to restrict your health care rights in this regard.

I will work to secure our border to embrace bipartisan solutions that will put the resources into protecting the border. He will keep it a political issue so that he can continue to take photo ops in the border.

I’m going to work on water issues, affordable housing, and bringing down prices by going after price gougers. And he’s going to continue to embrace the extremist views brought to him by the Patriot Academy that he was such an important member of. So, thank you so much. I would love to have your vote. I love to be the law professor who does her damn homework for you.

<Click here> to see Ciscomani’s support for the totalitarian Project 2025.

Project 2025 is an unprecedented and dangerous takeover by MAGA Republicans and wealthy billionaire donors that rolls back Americans’ rights and freedoms, threatens our democracy, and hurts the middle class. Many of Project 2025’s policies have already been embraced by Representative Ciscomani.