A southern Arizona Democrat is one of twelve candidates her party hopes can flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives in this year’s midterm elections.
On Monday, JoAnna Mendoza, a candidate in Arizona’s sixth congressional district, was named as part of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program. The program offers extra support from the party’s congressional campaign arm to selected candidates around the country.
Mendoza is one of five Democrats hoping to take on U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, the incumbent Republican, in a November race to represent much of southeast Arizona and parts of metro Tucson.
“As a Marine, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, and that oath never expires,” Mendoza wrote in a statement. “Now more than ever, we need tough, accountable leadership that will put our families first.”
Mendoza is a former drill instructor who grew up in a farmworkers’ family in Pinal County. According to a statement from her campaign, her priorities include “lowering costs, securing the border, protecting access to healthcare, and restoring trust in government.”
“Jo is more than ready to defeat Juan Ciscomani and flip Southern Arizona blue,” wrote DCCC chair Suzan DelBene in a statement about the Red to Blue program.
Red to Blue offers candidates “strategic guidance, staff resources and trainings, as well as organizational and fundraising support,” according to a DCCC spokesperson.
Other candidates selected for the program’s first round include Jonathan Nez, the former president of the Navajo Nation running to unseat Republican Rep. Eli Crane in northern Arizona’s 2nd congressional district, as well as candidates in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Several of them spent their careers outside politics, including as ministers, military members and farmers.
Though some members of the program are running in areas decisively won by President Donald Trump in 2024, Arizona’s sixth district has long been an election battleground. The area traded hands between Democratic and Republican representatives through the 2010s. Out of 435 congressional districts, it’s one of only 18 rated as a “toss up” by the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
In 2022, Ciscomani won the seat by a margin of under 6,000 votes, defending it in 2024 by a margin of under 11,000 votes. Both times, he faced Kirsten Engel, an environmental law professor and former state legislator.
Mendoza’s campaign has raised more money than Engel’s had at the start of her last election year.
According to federal campaign finance records, Mendoza’s campaign had raised over $2.8 million by the end of 2025, compared to a haul of about $1.3 million by Engel’s campaign by the end of 2023.
Ciscomani still outraised Mendoza in the last three months of 2025, however, and sits on far larger campaign reserves, thanks in part to transfers from fundraising groups aligned with Republican Party leadership.
