Health care and the economy drive voter frustration
This year, Arizona’s 6th Congressional District is one of the country’s closely watched tossup congressional races. Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani is facing Democratic challenger JoAnna Mendoza in a race that could help determine which party controls the U.S. House in 2027.
The district stretches from Tucson to southeastern Arizona, encompassing five different counties, sharing a boundary with New Mexico and reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.
Beyond the campaign ads and national attention, the race is also playing out across the rural communities throughout southeastern Arizona. Places such as Benson, Willcox and Safford are home to ranchers, farmers, miners, veterans and retirees whose concerns don’t always fit neatly into the national political debate.
For these voters, the issues are often deeply local: the economy, health care, water and border security. Voters are also paying attention to newer issues playing out across the country, including the potential impact of data centers, Flock cameras, as well as the war in Iran.
And despite their political differences, some rural voters interviewed by Barn Raiser share a common frustration: They are tired of politicians fighting and want Congress to focus on solving problems.
Ciscomani and Mendoza offer competing visions of what that representation should look like.
Despite Ciscomani’s incumbent status, polls show Mendoza with a two-point margin. In a race this close, and with 34% of the electorate not aligned with either party, rural voices could be the deciding vote.
Ciscomani made history as the first naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico to represent Arizona in Congress when he was first elected to the district in 2022. In August, he was named Arizona’s most bipartisan member of Congress for the second consecutive year by Bridge Grades. His political career has been defined by his hardline stance on border security and securing federal funding for agriculture (he secured $25 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a facility that promises to strengthen the response towards New World screwworm) and infrastructure improvements.
While Ciscomani touts such federal investments, voters in the district point to his actions to cut several federal programs like food stamps and Medicare. Every Saturday without fault, voters post up outside of his office in Tucson, where a sliver of his district lies, to protest his vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in 2025. Last year, he was heavily criticized by constituents for his lack of hosting in-person town halls to hear about constituents’ concerns.
Among those concerns was the nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid through 2035, including new work requirements and other coverage restrictions. Between 123,000 and 246,000 Arizonans are projected to lose their Medicaid expansion coverage by 2028 because of the new restrictions. Arizona is one of 41 states that have implemented Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The bill’s elimination of premium tax credits has caused ACA marketplace premiums statewide to swell 28% to 35% on average, with Arizona seeing one of the steepest declines in ACA enrollment in the nation, losing more than a fourth of enrollees.
Experts also warn the cuts also threaten the financial health of hospitals across the nation. An analysis by Public Citizen found eight hospitals in Arizona are at risk of closing because of the law, with one located in Tucson.
Ciscomani’s campaign did not respond to several interview requests, but during a televised debate on September 10 he addressed his vote by highlighting instead the bill’s cuts for tax on overtime, tips and extending the Child Tax Credit. He pointed to Medicare and Medicaid fraud found in Arizona for tightening the requirements of benefits, which include 6-month check-ins for those ages 19 to 64.
The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association estimates the Arizona health care system would lose over $6 billion over the next seven years and more than 55% of Arizona hospitals would be forced to restrict services.
In the rural parts of the district, Ciscomani is seen by some as a champion for farmers, ranchers, miners and everyday people, many who say they’ll vote for him again. The district re-elected him in 2024 by a 3-point margin against a previous Democratic opponent. It also elected Donald Trump by a razor thin margin.
Mendoza positions herself through the lens of her rural upbringing. She says she’s the daughter of farmworkers who worked beside them picking cotton in Eloy, where she was born and raised, a town in the district most notably known for its immigration detention center. As a child, she says she remembers seeing the military as the only ticket out and up. She served in the U.S. Navy for three years and in the Marines for 17 years.
Her priorities include lowering costs, bringing good-paying jobs to Southern Arizona, strengthening the health care system, strong borders and immigration solutions, climate, water and energy security, restoring trust and accountability in government, supporting veterans and national security.
During Thursday’s debate, Mendoza continued to tie issues back to OBBBA and criticized Ciscomani’s decision to vote for the legislation.
A single mother by choice, she says she’s running to fight for people like her, her mother and her sisters, all who know first-hand the struggles people living in rural Arizona face.
“One of the reasons why I’m running is because it’s time for people to have someone who understands their struggles, who’s not going to dismiss them, who’s also going to champion the things that they care about, like being able to afford groceries and health care and gas to get to work,” she tells Barn Raiser. “I think people right now are really looking for leadership and they’re looking for someone to stand up for them.”
Both candidates are running multi-million-dollar campaigns.
Mendoza’s campaign raised over $6.4 million as of July 1, with 91% coming from individual contributions, according to her latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing. Mendoza received just over $490,000 in contributions from and earmarked for JStreetPAC, which supports candidates who are committed to taking a pro-Israel stance.
Ciscomani raised $6.1 million, with more than half coming from PACs, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC (AIPAC), which also encouraged individuals to donate directly to Ciscomani’s campaign. To date, AIPAC has donated over $1.1 million to his campaign—$85,000 in direct contributions and the rest in individual contributions earmarked by the organization. And a $12,220 contribution from Elon Musk’s America PAC.
Stephen Smith, 59, and his mother, Nancy Smith, 81, voted for Republicans down the ballot in the past two elections. But they do not plan on voting in the midterms because of their contempt for politicians, which has grown in Trump’s second term, exacerbated by the high prices of gas and food and international conflicts like the war in Iran.
“Democrats, Republicans, Independents, it doesn’t matter. They’re for themselves,” Stephen Smith says. “They lie and they steal from the poor people. The government does not care about the people.”
The Smiths rely on Social Security, disability and an inheritance from Nancy’s late husband, a service veteran. They say their conditions have only worsened, to the point where they’ve had to put things back on the shelf when grocery shopping, blaming tariffs and the war in Iran.
Ella Chase, 19, also touts affordability as her main priority. She was raised in Benson and works at a local pizza shop. She plans on leaving soon, saying there’s not much opportunity for her or many other young people in her rural hometown.
“It’s really hard for our generation to be able to go out on our own and do things,” she says. “I have so many friends that have like 2 or 3 jobs and they’re still living with their parents because they can’t go out there.”
In Casa Grande, a city in Pinal County, electric-vehicle maker Lucid Motors notified 705 workers of layoffs in June. The company told investors in February the OBBBA’s elimination of the EV tax credit was one factor in the company’s financial strain. And in August, Ciscomani welcomed Speaker Mike Johnson to Casa Grande to discuss how OBBBA was “strengthening Arizona manufacturing, creating jobs, and delivering tax relief for hardworking families,” according to a press release.
“Ask the people in those communities if they feel like the government is working for them. They just got laid off. I mean, talk about being tone deaf,” Mendoza says.
Robert and Sherrie Bernal, two retirees living in Benson, receive Medicare and Social Security. While they say their personal retirement accounts have allowed them to live more comfortably than people who rely solely on federal assistance, accessing health care in their rural community is still a challenge.
Their situation is typical in this aging district, where people 65 years or older make up 27% of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The district’s median age is 44, 10% higher than the national median age of 39.
The Bernals travel to Tucson every week for medical care, mainly because of the limited breadth of provider options, but also because they don’t have access to specialists in their community.
The Arizona Mirror found 10 hospitals in and around the 6th Congressional District are set to lose approximately $110 million in Medicaid revenue annually due to cuts in the OBBBA. The hospitals directly located in Ciscomani’s district are set to lose about $55 million annually from the cuts. While Ciscomani initially touted the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program included in the OBBBA, Arizona has since pulled in a one-time $167 million grant from the program, the sixth-lowest in the nation.
“It is hard to get good health care because what happens, even in Benson, when I go see my doctor I get 15 minutes,” Robert Bernal says, complaining that rural health care providers don’t address preventative measures, only urgent issues. “They try to kind of fix it once it’s already bad instead of trying to help.”
Tye Judd, 55, also travels to Tucson regularly to receive treatment for a neural injury. His wife, Elizabeth Judd, says health care will be the driving factor on how she votes. Tye receives disability, and he noticed that recently his federal payments have dropped by $200 per month. His disability payments help him cover medical costs, which he says have only gotten more expensive recently.
For the two, the $200 deficit weighs heavily, as Tye’s disability check is the sole source of income. Elizabeth, who has a background in behavioral health, is currently looking for a job, while the two navigate the health care system amid an affordability crisis.
“What are the other resources that people have in the Cochise County area?” Elizabeth Judd says. “Are we really making sure that these people have the access to the resources they need, because everybody’s living paycheck to paycheck.”
Wayne Gardner is a rancher in Safford, and one of his main concerns is water, especially as 2027 will see Arizona’s largest reduction in its share of the Colorado River.
While he personally doesn’t use water from the Colorado River, he says the aquifers he does use are being depleted. But he also understands the need to avoid cuts for the sake of Arizona’s growth and its large population of ranchers and farmers, where this water source is a lifeline.
In a state with a long-term drought, the fight for water has an issue both sides can get behind.
Ciscomani has been an advocate for water, launching the Colorado River Caucus to lead a bipartisan effort on conservation and resiliency efforts, advocating for tribal water rights and pushing for water monitoring and drought programs.
At the debate, his challenger, Mendoza said water was her number one priority and is an issue she would vote against the party line for. She says the solution includes bipartisan and multi-layered approaches.
“We want to make sure that we are preserving Arizona’s water and that we’re taking the steps here not only federally, but locally, to make sure that we are conserving as much water as possible,” she tells Barn Raiser. “The federal government can help with that, especially with money to help build water infrastructure, but also preparing the next generation to tackle that problem.”
On Election Day, voters in this district will determine who will address these problems best as their next member of Congress.
Susan Barnett is a bilingual, community-centered independent journalist based in Southern Arizona.
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