2026 Election debate: Arizona Congressional District 6 candidates

PHOENIX - The Republican and Democratic candidate for Arizona's 6th Congressional District will take part in a debate on Sept. 10, and here's what to know.

What parts of the state does CD6 cover?

According to a map on Congress.gov, Arizona's 6th Congressional District covers portions of Southeastern Arizona, including Sierra Vista and parts of Casa Grande and Tucson.

Who's organizing the debate?

Per their website, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission is the official debate sponsor.

Who's taking part in the debate?

Republican Juan Ciscomani is set to take on Democrat JoAnna Mendoza in the debate.

Juan Ciscomani

Ciscomani is the incumbent congressman for the district: per his biography on his Congressional website, Ciscomani was first elected to the post in 2022, and he claims to be the first naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico in Arizona history to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Per his Congressional website, Ciscomani worked for the University of Arizona, the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, as well as serving as Senior Advisor of the Arizona-Mexico Commission before his congressional career.

JoAnna Mendoza

According to her campaign website, Mendoza enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. During her 20-year military career, Mendoza said she was a drill instructor, and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

On the issues, Mendoza said she will work to stop what she called "unfair price disparities in rural communities" and strengthen consumer protections as a way to lower costs. She also said she will bring back town hall events within her first 100 days as a congresswoman, and work to strengthen border security.

Aren't there other candidates in the race?

While only Ciscomani and Mendoza will take part in the Clean Elections debate, there are a total of five candidates in the election, with the other three being:

Michael Dorland (Independent, write-in candidate)
Jereme Lance Peters (Libertarian Party)
Gary Swing (Green Party)

Michael Dorland

Per his nomination papers, Dorland is a 57-year-old who lives in Tucson. In his statement on the Secretary of State's website, Dorland wrote that he "know what it looks like when a reasonable-sounding policy destroys someone's life," and that he is running for Congress because "I genuinely believe I'm unlikely to make things worse — and I'll say so when I do."

"I'm not claiming to be the most qualified person, I'm saying the bar is low, and honest incompetence acknowledged beats confident incompetence concealed," Dorland wrote.

Jeremy Lance Peters

Not much is known about Peters, but according to his nomination papers, Peters is a 38-year-old who resides in Tucson.

Gary Swing

Swing, according to his nomination paper, is a 58-year-old who resides in Tucson. His statement on the Secretary of State's website contains mentions to his political beliefs, which includes, among other things, "abolish nuclear weapons," "reduce US military budget [by] 90%," abolishing the U.S. Senate, and "Impeach and convict Trump and his entire cabinet."

Isn't there a debate for the CD2 candidates as well on Sept. 10?

According to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission's website, a debate was supposed to take place on Sept. 10 for two Congressional District 2 candidates: Republican Eli Crane and Democrat Jonathan Nez. However, the website shows that Crane did not respond to an invitation to attend the debate.

A third candidate, Curtis Goodwin of the Libertarian Party, did not appear on the list of candidates invited on the commission's website.

The commission is known to conduct candidate interviews in lieu of debates when only one candidate agrees to participate, such as the Sept. 1 interview with Miranda Lopez, a Democrat who is running to represent the state's 21st Legislative District in the state house.