2018 General Election Elected 53 — 47
She’d rather be working
The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) recently published a list of eleven of Red to Blue candidates for 2018. These are candidates whose organization and fundraising are likely to lead to victory over an incumbent Republican.
Of the eleven on the list, Ann Kirkpatrick https://www.kirkpatrickforcongress.com/ is the sixth I will have written about. She’s a professional politician who has won some and lost some. She was elected to Congress for AZ 01 in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2014. She lost to a Republican in 2010. Rather than face her again, the Republican ran and won in AZ 04 in 2012 while she was elected. Kirkpatrick ran for the Senate in 2016 — against John McCain. McCain won by thirteen points.
.Ann Kirkpatrick has returned. She is running for the Tuscon based AZ 02 seat in the Southeastern corner of the state. Democrat Tom O’Halleran represents her old seat, AZ 01. AZ 02 may not have an incumbent candidate. The Republican incumbent is thinking about a run for the US Senate in 2018. We’ll see.
Ann Kirkpatrick has a lot support for her candidacy in the primary. Gabby Giffords and many others have endorsed Kirkpatrick even though her primary opponent is not an unknown. A physician, a former Arizona state rep, a former Obama appointee to DHHS, he was the losing candidate for AZ 02 in 2016. Kirkpatrick will win the primary and has a real chance to flip AZ 02 back to the Democrats.
Ann Kirkpatrick’s second language is the language of the Apache. Born on an Apache reservation to an Anglo family, her father owned a store and her mother taught school. She caused a small storm recently when she posted that Apache was her first language. It would have been more accurate to say that her first words were from the Apache language. Her first language is English.
The family moved from reservation when she was in 2nd grade. In this new world, Ann Kirkpatrick proved to be an excellent student. She was her high school’s valedictorian and an Asian Studies major at the University of Arizona. Her third language is Mandarin Chinese. It wouldn’t be a shock if she had a little Spanish, too.
After teaching briefly, Ann Kirkpatrick went to the University of Arizona law school. She became the deputy county attorney, the Sedona city attorney, and was in private practice for almost twenty years. Her husband, a Dartmouth and NYU Law School graduate was, for years, a bank trusts and estate attorney. For fifteen years, he has been in private practice doing the same kind of work. They have two grown daughters.
An experienced lawyer, she ran for the state legislature. She served two terms before she was elected to the US Congress. In the US Congress, she is considered a moderate Democrat. Here is the kind of moderate she is.
- She supports the Affordable Care Act
- She supports same-sex marriage.
- She is pro-choice and has been endorsed by Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, and the National Women’s Political Caucus.
- She is an advocate for veteran’s benefits.
- She supported Obama’s stimulus efforts early in his tenure
- She favors immigration reform: increased border patrol funding, a ground-based radar system (a smart fence), a temporary-worker program, and a path to citizenship for those without documentation.
Here are some other ways she is moderate:
- She voted to delay implementation of the Clean Power Act believing delay would help the economy.
- She voted to allow federal intelligence agencies to share cyber security intelligence and information with private entities and utilities
- She would cut the pay of Members of Congress
Help Ann Kirkpatrick https://www.kirkpatrickforcongress.com/ return to Congress. After losing to John McCain, she could have retired at age 65 and after a distinguished career. She’d rather be working. We’d rather she be working, too. Bring her back to Congress so she can work for Arizonans and for us.
