As a live band blasted Stevie Wonder renditions and guests milled about sipping Modelos, Congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza stepped away from the bustle of her watch party and into a relatively quiet hallway for a press gaggle Tuesday night.
“How are you feeling?” one reporter asked, as others inched their microphones closer.
“Honestly, it really hasn’t set in,” Mendoza said, smiling as her gaze shifted within the barrage of cameras. “I mean, I think we knew that we had done the work. We were very confident.”
The Mendoza team had declared victory earlier that evening, though the Associated Press has not confirmed the win as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Tuesday night’s first ballot update, however, revealed an early double-digit percentage lead over Mendoza’s incumbent opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani. And while the AP results stalled, another election data analyst, Decision Desk HQ, projected Tuesday evening that Mendoza was likely to win the race, with 85% probability.
With that, the Mendoza team celebrated, posting an announcement to social media: “I’m ready to serve you, AZ-06.”
As the results poured in, Mendoza’s laidback watch party shifted to a lively celebration, its attendees basking in reports of new Democratic wins across the country.
“We have kind of exciting news,” Mendoza’s campaign manager, James Gravitt, bellowed from the podium. “I hear James Talarico has flipped—”
The rest of his sentence was drowned out as the room exploded in clamorous applause for the Texan Democratic Senate-elect.
In a crowded office suite near St. Philip’s Plaza, meanwhile, Ciscomani stood flanked by his family Tuesday night as he addressed an energetic crowd of supporters. He urged the crowd at his watch party to remain patient as election results rolled in.
“Honestly, it really hasn’t set in.”JoAnna Mendoza
"We're not expecting final results tonight. We kind of learned that through the process of running in this district, but it is the completion of the campaign cycle. So, a lot to celebrate and looking forward to that victory,” he said.
The lights to the office suite came on shortly after the crowd applauded Ciscomani's election night speech at around 8 p.m. Several minutes later, the Arizona Secretary of State released the first batch of election results.
“We expect this to take a couple of days before it gets called,” Ciscomani told reporters Tuesday night.
In the hours since his watch party, Ciscomani has been quiet in the public sphere. The congressman has not released a statement acknowledging Mendoza’s declaration of victory.
As of Wednesday at 4 p.m., Mendoza maintains 52.8% of votes counted, while Ciscomani holds 45.1%. The results account for 81% of votes cast in the race, according to the AP – meaning Pima County is still in the process of counting thousands of ballots.
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In final hours of campaign, both candidates reflected on their pasts
Mendoza, a Marine veteran from Eloy, has largely highlighted cost-of-living issues in her congressional campaign. She recounted her own childhood as the daughter of farmworkers during a speech Tuesday evening.
Burdened beneath the weight of financial strain, her mother had been forced to send Mendoza’s sister to live with another relative, the candidate recalled.
“And I never forgot that. So, again, this is what poverty asks of people, especially when programs are ripped away from you,” Mendoza said.
During a speech at his watch party, Ciscomani recalled washing cars with his father to make ends meet in neighborhoods that now fall within his district. He described his journey to Congress as a testament to the opportunities provided by the American Dream, calling it a personal reality rather than a political slogan.
The two candidates clashed throughout the competitive race, with Mendoza criticizing Ciscomani’s ties to President Donald Trump and accusing Ciscomani of voting for measures that jeopardized Arizonans’ access to healthcare and government assistance.
Ciscomani framed the Democratic candidate as too liberal for southern Arizona, citing her past lobbying work, property tax record and positions on policing and immigration. Mendoza disputed those claims.
Mendoza has rebuked Ciscomani’s support of H.R.1 — more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which led to a slew of new measures across the nation, including cuts to SNAP benefits that affected more than 400,000 Arizonans.
“The cuts that my opponent voted for in H.R.1 actually has increased costs for a lot of folks and it also has made it very difficult for children across this district, I'd even say across the state, to get the nourishment that they need,” she said during a heated debate with Ciscomani earlier this fall.
Ciscomani, for his part, has defended his vote for H.R.1, often citing the bill's tax deductions for tips and overtime pay.
“It extends the child tax credit for families, and makes it permanent as well. These are just three different provisions. … So, when you say that you oppose this bill, that's exactly what you're opposing,” Ciscomani told Mendoza at the time.
Competition isn’t new in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.
In 2024, Ciscomani faced off against Democratic candidate Kirsten Engel, a law professor and former state senator. In that race, Ciscomani won by 10,822 votes. By comparison, the current AP results show Mendoza is leading by 23,190 votes, with 19% of ballots left to be counted as of 5:10 p.m.
