Democrats need to pick up 23 seats next month to recapture a majority in the House. They have at least one in Arizona, where GOP cash is drying up.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has stopped television ad spending in Arizona’s 2nd District days after the party’s candidate stumbled during a debate, according to Roll Call.
During the race’s only debate, Lea Marquez Peterson drew guffaws for a vague answer on whether she believes in climate change.
Marquez Peterson trails Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, by 11 points in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll.
Kirkpatrick lost to Sen. John McCain in a bid for the senate in 2016.
Health care has also been a vulnerability for Marquez Peterson.
Kirkpatrick lost her seat in 2010 in part due to her vote for President Barack Obama’s health care law, but she has since found her support for the law in 2010 is benefiting her in this race.
The candidate said during the debate this week that she was motivated to run when district Rep. Martha McSally voted for a Republican bill that would have left millions more patients without health coverage.
Support for the 2010 health care law has ticked upward since Republican efforts to void the law last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s monthly tracking poll.
McSally is running against U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema for Sen. Jeff Flake’s soon-to-be-vacated seat. That race is too close to call.
The Tucson-based 2nd district in southern Arizona is one of the most evenly divided in the nation, with Democrats enjoying only a small registration advantage over Republicans, and nearly a third of voters officially independents.
After four years represented by McSally, the district is leaning left again.
Kirkpatrick’s victory would shift Arizona’s nine-member House delegation from 5-4 Republican majority to a 5-4 advantage for the Democrats.