Note: this story was updated to add an audio file and to add a comment from Rep. Juan Ciscomani.
With the 2026 midterm elections less than one year away, two Arizona Democrats are working to define their party’s message about persistent high prices for health care, food and housing.
At a town hall event on Sunday in Tucson, Rep. Adelita Grijalva and Rep. Greg Stanton blamed Republicans for the nation’s economic conditions, while proposing two different approaches to flipping Arizona’s 6th congressional district, a swing district held by Republicans.
Republicans campaigned heavily on pocketbook issues during the 2024 presidential election, harnessing voters’ frustrations about high prices in the wake of pandemic-era inflation. At the town hall, Grijalva said the party's campaign drilled down to details like the price of eggs.
“They told voters they had a plan. They promised relief. But almost one year into Trump’s second term, things have only gotten worse, and it’s a direct result of the choices they’re making in Washington,” she said.
The cost of a typical bundle of goods known as the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, grew 3% between September 2024 and September 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It had grown by 2.4% in the one-year period before that, according to the agency.
As they answered audience questions written on notecards and read by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who acted as a moderator, Grijalva and Stanton relied on common Democratic talking points to tie economic conditions to Republican policies. They criticized tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump, decried Republican attempts to reduce Medicaid and SNAP enrollment, and blamed what they called corruption in the Oval Office for diverting Trump’s attention from the cost of living.
The event took place at the Second Sky community center on Tucson’s south side. The location was not a coincidence: it lies within Arizona’s 6th congressional district, currently represented by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican.
District 6 is one of only 18 congressional districts across the country rated as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and is seen as a top midterm pickup target by Democratic Party leadership.
Grijalva and Stanton consistently steered the conversation toward the midterms. They argued that defeating Ciscomani will depend on highlighting his vote for Republicans’ marquee budget bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Who he is as a member of Congress is what his voting record is,” Grijalva said of Ciscomani. “I don’t care how nice you are. On a regular basis, you are voting against the interests of southern Arizonans.”
The legislation passed in July established new work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will take those benefits away from millions of people. It made permanent a lower tax bracket for the wealthiest Americans. It also introduced new tax deductions for tips, overtime pay, car loan interest payments and senior citizens’ income aimed at middle and working-class Americans.
Before voting for the bill, Ciscomani had urged Republican leaders not to reduce Medicaid coverage “for those who need it and who have limited options for health coverage.”
“Congressman Ciscomani says the words but doesn’t use the power of his office to make the policies that he proposes happen,” Stanton told reporters after Sunday’s event.
Democrats across the country have made affordability a central talking point since major wins in last month’s off-year election, including by New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on a platform of rent freezes and free buses.
In a recent Politico poll, 37% of respondents who voted for Trump in 2024 said the current cost of living was the worst they’ve seen. One in four Trump voters said the Republican Party was not who they trust most to lower costs.
In a statement to AZPM News, Ciscomani touted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's new tax deductions and its expansions of the standard deduction and the child tax credit.
"As the longest serving Arizona Democrat in Congress, Greg Stanton has failed to deliver real solutions and now he’s coming into my district with lies, misinformation, and political pandering. While he and other Democrats in that meeting focus on misleading attacks, I’m focused on results — lowering costs, protecting taxpayers, and delivering for the people of Arizona," he wrote.
Reps. Stanton and Grijalva map out two approaches to flip Republican-held District 6 seat
In next year’s midterms, Ciscomani will likely face Democrat JoAnna Mendoza in a race that has already attracted significant fundraising.
Asked about strategies to unseat the incumbent, Stanton and Grijalva proposed two contrasting campaign strategies for Mendoza.
Stanton, a leader of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, compared the upcoming midterms to those during Trump’s first term, when the former Phoenix mayor was elected to Congress in a nationwide blue wave.
He emphasized Mendoza’s opportunity to make headway with moderate Republicans who have reservations about Trump’s character.
“Even if they like Trump a little bit, maybe some of policies, they know as a person he engages in ridiculous excesses, undemocratic excesses,” he said.
Stanton called Mendoza, a former Marine Corps drill sergeant, “straight out of central casting,” comparing her to Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, two recently-elected Democratic governors with national security backgrounds. Mendoza has highlighted her military experience on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, Grijalva, a progressive who supports single-payer health care, said Mendoza will have to connect with even hardline conservatives, focusing on harmful local effects of Republican policies.
“We have to talk about working families and push an agenda for working families,” she said of Democrats in the midterms.
The free town hall event was attended by about 90 people. It was advertised through Pima County Democratic Party channels and more broadly on social media, organizers said.
