Kirsten Engel Wants Another Shot to Become the Next House Representative from CD Six

The 2022 Election in Arizona House Congressional District (CD) Six was one of the most watched and closest in the nation.

In a squeaker, Republican nominee Juan Ciscomani edged out Democratic candidate Kirsten Engel by just over 5,000 votes.

Since taking office, Mr. Ciscomani has taken extremist positions not indicative of a Representative in a perennial purple district that the nation will be watching again in 2024 as Democrats seek to retake the House.

According to the House Congressional record documented on Votes Smart, the current CD Six Representative has voted to:

* Take away enforcement from the Internal Revenue Service against tax cheats.

* Discriminate against LGBTQ Student-Athletes.

*  Provide huge giveaways to big oil companies at the expense of combatting climate change and green sustainability.

Kirsten Engel would like the slightly over 5,000 people and more who voted for Mr. Ciscomani in 2022 to ask themselves: Do you like what you see?

The environmental/water rights attorney and former State Legislator and 2022 CD Six Nominee has declared her candidacy to run for Congress in CD Six in 2024.

In her announcement video, former State Senator Engel said:

“…When I see a problem, I get to work. Too many Arizonans are struggling to get by. Let’s face it. For so many of us, the American Dream is further and further out of reach. But Juan Ciscomani and the Republicans in Congress have the wrong priorities: rolling back access to abortion; kicking the can down the road on our climate-driven water crisis; ignoring parents’ pleas to address gun violence; and putting corporate profits ahead of working families and small businesses. We can’t afford to let them play games with our children’s future, our Social Security, or our Medicare. Together, we came damn close last time…Let’s finish the job.”

State Senator Engel graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy for the Arizona CD Six House Seat.

The questions and her responses are below.

1)Please tell the voters at least three reasons they should vote for you over any Democratic or Republican candidate in the CD Six Arizona House seat.

“First off, while I’m going to fight for our fundamental freedom to decide for ourselves whether and when to have a family, my opponent is committed to taking this freedom and dictating this most private decision for us. He supports Arizona’s abortion law, which after 15 weeks has no exceptions, not even for rape or incest.”

“We are currently in a water crisis driven by climate change. I’m prepared to use my experience as an environmental attorney to implement practical solutions to secure Arizona’s water future while bringing down high utility bills. In contrast, Juan Ciscomani just voted for the Polluters Over People Act, HR1, which would slow down our transition to lower-cost clean energy and drive more profits to oil and gas corporations.  This is wildly out of sync with what the people of this district want.”

“I have a proven track record of working across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions from issues of education, water, and crime and I am committed to bringing those skills to Congress to work on solutions we can all get behind.”

Please tell the readers how you feel your likely Republican opponent has not served the people in the district?

“Juan Ciscomani pretends to be a moderate, but look at his voting record! He already voted twice to take away a woman’s right to choose and he’s voted to subsidize big oil companies at the expense of Southern Arizona’s renewable energy industry. He voted to install the most extreme leadership team ever to take control of the House. The supposed head of the House Republicans is Kevin McCarthy, but we all know that it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene who is calling all the shots. To make matters worse, Ciscomani voted to set up a committee whose sole purpose will be to launch a shameless counter-investigation into the January 6^th insurrection. Ciscomani is showing his true colors as a MAGA extremist.”

 2) What are three issues that you will focus your campaign on during this campaign for the House?

“Restoring a woman’s right to choose that was ruthlessly taken away by the Supreme Court, water security, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.”

What is your position on funding the police?

“I support law enforcement. I do not support defunding the police.”

“In fact, between myself and Juan Ciscomani, I am the only candidate who has voted to fund the police. While I was in the Arizona Legislature, I supported legislation that resulted in millions of dollars going to the Department of Public Safety, our District Attorney’s offices, and law enforcement. We have a critical issue keeping good law enforcement personnel. It’s difficult for law enforcement to recruit quality officers because of low pay. Yet it’s critical that we are successful in recruiting good people for these very important jobs and that we put the money into training them. This includes basic police officer training, as well as cultural training that we know is so critical to ensuring communication and support between communities and law enforcement on security issues.”

What would you do about inflation?

“So many Arizonans are struggling to make ends meet right now. Seniors are being hard hit by the higher cost of living, and it’s packing a wallop on our small businesses.”

“There are so many things that we can do to bring down costs for Arizonans and their families.”

“We need to continue efforts to bring down the costs of prescription drugs by expanding the ability of the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. We should also place caps on the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors.”

“We need to make sure that the infrastructure money that was, appropriated in the bipartisan infrastructure bill by Congress gets out to our communities and gets the supply chain moving.”

“By investing in clean energy, we will bring down peoples’ utility bills. This will help a lot as the extremes of climate change – extreme heat and even extreme cold – is jacking up what people are paying to heat and cool their homes.”

What are your views on comprehensive immigration reform?

“We need to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system.  We can and must do both. When elected, this will be a high priority for me. In terms of security, we should be focused on our ports of entry as we know fentanyl and other drugs are coming across the border primarily through these ports. Fentanyl is rampant and deadly. So many families have tragically lost a child or teenager to a fentanyl overdose. I support comprehensive immigration reform. While Democrats are ready to fix our broken immigration system, they have been stymied by Republicans who continue to play politics with this issue. This isn’t a game. Real people with real families are caught in this system. We need to provide citizenship to the Dreamers who are trying to build lives and businesses here in the country they grew up whose lives have been placed in legal limbo by the courts.  We need to hire the staff needed to provide for an orderly asylum process and to incentivize migrants to apply for asylum at our ports of entry.”

3) Your race is going to be one of the closest in the country in 2024. How will you reach out to Democrats and increase turnout there while also bringing in more Independents and even Republicans that may not be satisfied with the current incumbent?

“I will do what I have always done — reach out to the voters, hear what they are concerned about, listen to their ideas, and then demonstrate that I’m ready to go to Congress to work for them. I think Arizonans deserve better than they are getting and they’re sick of the gridlock they’re seeing in Washington.  They’re ready for somebody to work for them on the issues that matter, such as restoring basic healthcare rights, securing our water, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.”

4) Is there anything not covered in the first three questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy to win the House seat in Arizona CD Six.?

“I think it’s important to note that we came incredibly close in 2022. This was one of the closest races in the country and one of the last to be called. We missed winning by a little over one percent and that’s after being outspent by Republican dark money by at least six to one. I think that shows the strength of my campaign in 2022 and the base we have to build upon to win in 2024. We’re very excited to get to work. I think the chaos that we’re seeing in the US House right now shows the importance of winning this district not only to be able to work on the issues for the constituents in this district but also to flip the house to a Democratic majority so everyone gets the benefits of democratic values and hard work. We came damn close last time. Let’s finish the job.”

Please click on the below social media sites for more information on State Senator Engel and her campaign for Congress.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/engelforarizona

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/engelforarizona