Joanna Mendoza

Money rolling in: Democrat JoAnna Mendoza put out a press release saying her campaign against Ciscomani in CD6 has brought in nearly $1 million in the last three months, and just shy of $3 million since she jumped into the race. We can’t independently verify those amounts as Federal Election Commission reports aren’t publicly available yet. (January 20, 2026)

Booted from the ballot: The No Labels candidate in Southern Arizona’s 6th Congressional District won’t be on the ballot after a judge said he hadn’t collected enough signatures, the Republic’s Laura Gersony reports. Iman Bah has launched several long-shot bids for local elected offices in recent years. For his current congressional run, he raised less than $200. Lawyers aligned with the Republican Party tried to keep him on the ballot, believing he would siphon votes from Democratic candidate JoAnna Mendoza. (May 11, 2026)

The perils of tying yourself to Trump: Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani is trailing Democrat JoAnna Mendoza in the Congressional District 6 race, per Jim Nintzel at the Tucson Sentinel. Conservatives for America commissioned a poll of 400 voters in the district, which showed 47% of voters supported Mendoza, while 44% preferred Ciscomani. Mendoza’s lead is still within the margin of error, but keep in mind she doesn’t have nearly the name recognition as the two-term incumbent. (April 30, 2026)

Betting on the long game: The November elections are still a ways off, but the race in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District is already the hottest political topic in Cochise County, the Herald/Review’s Matt Hickman writes. Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani was “way more forthright than I expected,” reporter Terri Jo Neff said after interviewing the two-term incumbent. Ciscomani’s Democratic rival, JoAnna Mendoza, remains largely unknown, Hickman writes, which could benefit her if the race boils down to a referendum on President Donald Trump. “And yes, it is still early. Which means everyone gets to say ‘it’s still early’ right before reading polls, checking betting markets and pretending they are not already gaming out every television ad, debate answer and outside-money carpet bombing between now and November,” Hickman writes. (May 12, 2026)

Coming to an ad near you: Democratic congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza once said she’d support decriminalizing sex work to help transgender people earn a living, the New York Post reports. The Post, a conservative tabloid, got ahold of a since-deleted video of an interview Mendoza did during a campaign for the state Legislature in 2020 with LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality Arizona in which she said she would support decriminalization because “we need to stop criminalizing people for their situations.” (June 4, 2026)

With or without you: Over the weekend, more than 250 people gathered in midtown Tucson to discuss President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The town hall was the latest in a string of public meetings critical of Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and his refusal to hold public, in-person town halls in his district. These events are not new — but the panel of high-profile Democrats, including Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, state Sen. Priya Sundareshan and state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, as well as congressional candidates JoAnna Mendoza and Deja Foxx1 show the dwindling list of Democrats in Pima County willing to work with Ciscomani. (June 23, 2025)

“Big, beautiful opportunity”: Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s support of the Big, Beautiful Bill, could come back to haunt him at the ballot box as cuts to SNAP and other programs hit Southern Arizonans, Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock writes. More than 77,000 Pima County residents lost their SNAP benefits — as county officials recently revealed — and even more residents could see cuts to Medicaid after the November election. “If Ciscomani's likely Democratic opponent JoAnna Mendoza can just put the nail against the wall and hit it with a blunt object, she can win the election,” Morlock writes. “That should be real simple, but then she's a Democrat and works with Democratic consultants who've proven themselves terrified of any fight on the political landscape. They see only downsides in class-war politics.” (June 15, 2026)

Coming back to haunt him: The war in Iran loomed large at a veteran’s town hall in Tucson hosted by JoAnna Mendoza, a Democratic candidate in Southern Arizona’s competitive Congressional District 6, Arizona Public Media’s Nick Rommel reports. One Army veteran said he “loved every single thing” Trump said in the 2024 campaign, but “apparently, I’m seeing completely the opposite of what he said.” The backlash to Trump’s policies may be why Mendoza was leading two-term Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani 47-44% among CD6 voters, per a poll from Conservatives for America, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. (April 30, 2026)