Debbie Lesko

On December 20, 2017, Lesko announced she would run in the special election to replace fellow Republican congressman Trent Franks, who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. Her state senate district included the bulk of the congressional district. She also announced that she would resign from the Arizona Senate.[6] Although Arizona's resign-to-run laws would have allowed her to remain in the state senate since she was running in a special election (and she was in the final year of her term in any event), she resigned her seat on January 8, 2018.[7]

Lesko won the Republican nomination and faced the Democratic candidate, physician Hiral Tipirneni, in the general election on April 24.[8] She was endorsed by President Donald Trump who said that Lesko was a "conservative Republican".[9]

She won the election on April 24, beating Democratic candidate Hiral Tipirneni with 52.6% of the vote to Tipirneni's 47.4.[3] The win was by a narrower margin than expected,[10] with observers suggesting that it was indicative of a coming Democratic wave in the 2018 mid-term elections.[11][12] It was the closest contest in what is now the 8th since 1976, when Bob Stump won what was then the 3rd District with just 47 percent of the vote[13] (the district was renumbered as the 2nd in 2003, and has been the 8th since 2013).

According to the Associated Press, the election sent "a big message to Republicans nationwide: Even the reddest of districts in a red state can be in play this year."[14]

Lesko faced a rematch with Tipirneni in a bid for a full two-year term and won with a slightly wider margin, taking 55.5% to Tipirneni's 44.5 percent.[15] It was still the closest general election in the district in 42 years, and the closest that a Democrat had come to winning a full term in the district since Stump switched parties in 1982.

In January 2018, Lesko's campaign committee, Re-elect Debbie Lesko for Senate, gave $50,000 to Conservative Leadership for Arizona, a federal PAC authorized to spend independently of other campaigns. It was created eight days before taking the money from Lesko's state campaign committee.[16] The new PAC raised almost no other cash, records show, and the PAC used the money to support Lesko with yard signs, while her congressional campaign spent heavily on TV ads. Phil Lovas, a candidate in the Republican primary, complained to the Federal Election Commission and Arizona Attorney General alleging multiple violations in February 2018.[16]

The PAC maneuver also prompted criticism from the other Lesko opponent in the Republican primary, Steve Montenegro, who accused Lesko of "illegally funneling money into her SuperPAC and knowingly lied about it by filing false campaign reports."[16] A second complaint alleging federal campaign finance law violations was filed against Lesko in March 2018 by the Campaign Legal Center alleging that her transfer of $50,000 from her state campaign to an independent group that spent nearly all the cash backing her congressional run was illegal.[17]

During the coronavirus pandemic, she appeared at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a time when coronavirus cases were surging across the nation.[18] When asked about the public health risk posed by the rally, she responded, "I think the Trump administration and the campaign is doing all it can by doing temperature checks and handing out masks."[18] She defended the decision by the organizers of the rally not to require face masks. During the time, she posted pictures of herself among people; in some she wore a mask, in other pictures she did not.[18]

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security
  • Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation and Operations
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
• Committee on Rules until January 28, 2021[19]

[20]

• Freedom Caucus[21]
• Republican Study Committee

Lesko opposes abortion.[22] She has proposed legislation to give employers religious exemptions from providing contraceptives in health insurance plans.[23][24][25] She has proposed legislation that would allow health officials to conduct warrantless and unannounced inspections of abortion clinics, like they do for all other health institutions in the state, which critics said undermined the privacy of patients at the clinics.[26]

Lesko has been described as a loyal Trump ally.[18] In December 2019, she voted against impeaching President Trump.[27] She said there is "no proof, none, that the president has committed an impeachable offense."[28] In defending Trump, she claimed that Trump had not asked the President of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.[29]

In December 2020, Lesko was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden prevailed[30] over incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of the election held by another state.[31][32][33]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion." Additionally, Pelosi reprimanded Lesko and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions."[34][35] New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Lesko and the other Republicans who signed the brief supporting the suit. Pascrell argued that "the text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."[36]

Lesko has said that she would have voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Republican Party's 2017 tax overhaul.[37] She favors a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and said that "on the federal level, there has to be a lot of areas where we can cut spending."[37]

In 2017, Lesko championed legislation that would allow payday lenders to provide loans at interest rates as high as 164% a year.[38][39]

In 2016, she opposed efforts to increase the minimum wage in Arizona to $10 by 2017 and then to $12 by 2020.[40]

Lesko favors empowering private schools and charter schools.[41]

Asked at a debate involving seven candidates in January 2018 whether she believed that humans contribute to climate change, Lesko did not raise her hand.[42] After a long pause, she said that the question was "loaded" and added, "Is some of it, maybe, human-caused? Possibly. But certainly not the majority of it. I think it just goes through cycles and it has to do a lot with the sun. So no, I'm not a global warming proponent."[42]

In 2016, Lesko crafted a measure that would give state utilities in Arizona the right to charge separate rates for customers who produced their own energy through solar panels in order to prevent $600 million in subsidies from non-solar customers to solar customers.[43] Lesko crafted the measure with the assistance of utilities.[43]

As of 2019, Lesko has a 2 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, among the very lowest.[44]

Lesko opposes changes to existing gun laws, saying "I think there's enough laws. The laws need to be enforced."[37] Lesko has received an "A" rating from the NRA.[45]

Lesko opposes "universal health coverage" and favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).[37] She opposed Arizona's expansion of Medicaid coverage and sued former Arizona governor Jan Brewer after she expanded Medicaid.[46]

During her 2018 campaign, Lesko made the construction of a border wall on the Mexico border the centerpiece of her campaign, and she pledged to back the Trump administration's hardline positions on border security and immigration reform.[47][48][41]

Lesko strongly opposes the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She urged Congress members to vote against the bill.[49]