(NewsNation) — With 49.3% of the vote, NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ has called the race for Arizona’s District 6 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of Juan Ciscomani. See the results of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate races around the nation here.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani sought a second term after being elected in 2022 as the first naturalized American citizen from Mexico ever to be elected to Congress from Arizona. Since being elected, Ciscomani has served on the House Appropriations Committee and has focused on fiscal responsibility.
He was challenged by Democrat Kirsten Engel, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Engel lost the 2022 U.S. House race to Ciscomani by less than 5,300 votes.
She previously served in the Arizona state legislature before resigning in 2021 to seek election to the U.S. House. Engel is also a professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Law.
During the lead to Tuesday’s election, Ciscomani and Engel clashed on several issues, including abortion, which was among the ballot initiatives facing voters in Arizona.
Engel supports a woman’s right to make decisions about her reproductive health and said that there should be no “artificial time limits” when it comes to ending a pregnancy. Arizona’s law bans abortion after 15 weeks.
Ciscomani said that he supported the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and agreed with former President Donald Trump that abortion should be an issue decided at the state level.
He said that he rejects the idea of a federal abortion ban and that he trusts women, cherishes life and rejects “the extremes” when it comes to abortion.
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During debates, Ciscomani also chided Engel for not living within District 6, which includes most of suburban Tucson, all of Greenlee County and most of Cochise County.
During his first term, Ciscomani focused largely on immigration and border security and supported building a border wall.
Heading into Tuesday’s election, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. Republicans control the chamber with a narrow majority of 220 seats, while the Democrats occupy 212 with three vacancies.
