A big-money electoral battle is taking shape in southern Arizona as donations flow into the sixth congressional district race.
With the 2026 midterm elections nine months away, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, the Republican incumbent, raised just over $1 million in the last three months of 2025, campaign finance records show. His main challenger, Democrat JoAnna Mendoza, reported raising over $950,000.
Democrats need only three more seats to take control of the House of Representatives. Arizona’s sixth district is one of only 18 across the country rated as tossups by the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Ciscomani has represented it since 2022, winning re-election in 2024 by less than 11,000 votes.
Thanks to previous fundraising, Ciscomani now sits on a war chest of about $3.15 million. Mendoza’s campaign has about $1.54 million in the bank.
Ciscomani is currently without a primary election opponent. Several of Mendoza’s challengers have dropped out of the race, leaving the Pinal County native and former Marine Corps drill instructor as the Democratic front-runner to take on Ciscomani.
Reflecting the contest’s national repercussions, both candidates’ top individual donors in the last three months of 2025 were from states outside Arizona, including Texas, Massachusetts and California.
Mendoza also received over $24,000 in donations from groups supporting veterans running for office as Democrats. Meanwhile, national groups supporting congressional Republicans sent Ciscomani’s campaign over $200,000.
Both candidates received donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups, with the American Israel Public Affairs Committe giving to Ciscomani and J Street donating to Mendoza.
Mendoza’s campaign outspent Ciscomani’s by about 58%. More than a third of that spending went to Washington, D.C. campaign fundraising consultancy Grassroots Analytics.
Mendoza, Ciscomani weigh in on recent immigration enforcement actions, killings in Minnesota
As she seeks to outperform previous challengers for Ciscomani’s seat, Mendoza has been making the rounds with Arizona Democratic heavyweights. In December, she moderated a town hall with Sen. Mark Kelly. On Sunday, she appeared on a panel about gun violence with Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was the target of an assassination attempt in 2011.
Like in previous campaign stops, Mendoza leaned on her past as a Marine Corps drill instructor, this time to advocate for “responsible gun ownership.”
“Safety is not just a slogan that we use. It's a system. It's training, it's clear standards and accountability and leadership that earns trust,” she said.
Mendoza criticized recent federal immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis. She said agents are not using “de-escalation tactics, crowd control and the things that usually you would see from a federal law enforcement agent.”
“Department of Homeland Security enforcement operations are not keeping our community safe, and they're not targeting the criminals that they should be targeting,” Mendoza said.
Answering reporters’ questions at an event in Sierra Vista last week, Ciscomani did not explicitly criticize DHS actions in Minneapolis.
“Things have spiraled out of control in some of these areas,” Ciscomani said. “We see that in Minnesota.”
He said he supported President Donald Trump’s decision to hand control of Minnesota immigration enforcement to border czar Tom Homan, who said he planned to scale down operations in the area. The move came after federal agents killed protestors Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Pretti was carrying a handgun shortly before his death.
“People have the firm right to go and protest whatever they want to, and to lawfully carry a firearm if they are allowed to,” Ciscomani said.
Last month, Ciscomani voted for a House funding bill that kept Immigration and Customs Enforcement spending mostly constant while instituting some oversight measures. Only seven Democrats voted for the bill. Mendoza did not comment on the legislation in her official campaign channels.
