Arizona's 8th congressional district

Arizona's 8th congressional district
Arizona's 8th congressional district
	Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative
	Debbie Lesko; R–Peoria
Area	9,057 sq mi (23,460 km2)
Distribution	87.3% urban; 12.7% rural;
Population (2022)	811,500
Median household; income	$79,042
Ethnicity	64.3% White; 21.1% Hispanic; 4.5% Asian; 4.5% Black; 4.0% Two or more races; 1.1% Native American; 0.5% other;
Cook PVI	R+10

Arizona's 8th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona. It includes many of the suburbs north and west of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. The district includes several high-income retirement communities, including Sun City West.

After redistricting for the 2012 general election, the new 8th district encompasses most of the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd district, while most of the former 8th district became the 2nd congressional district.^[4] It is the geographic and demographic successor of the old 2nd; while the 4th district contains most of the old 2nd's land, more than 92 percent of the old 2nd's constituents were drawn into the 8th.^[5]

This seat was vacated by Representative Trent Franks on December 8, 2017. A special election was held on April 24, 2018, and won by Republican Debbie Lesko.

History

Arizona picked up an eighth congressional district after the 2000 census. It originally encompassed the extreme southeastern part of the state. It included all of Cochise County and parts of Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties. For all intents and purposes, it was the successor to what had been the 5th district from 1983 to 2003.

Longtime Republican Jim Kolbe retired in 2007, and was succeeded by Democrat Gabby Giffords, who was shot and severely wounded at a public event on January 8, 2011. Giffords resigned her seat in January 2012. A special election that was on June 12, 2012, elected Ron Barber as the new congressman.^[6]

For the 2012 election, Barber was redistricted to the 2nd district, which includes the bulk of the old 8th district. The 8th was redrawn to include nearly all of the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd district–as mentioned above, more than 92 percent of the old 2nd's population. The district had previously been the 3rd district from 1963 to 2003. That district's congressman, Republican Trent Franks, won the election for the new 8th.

Composition

#	County	Seat	Population
13	Maricopa	Phoenix	4,585,871

Cities of 10,000 people or more

Phoenix – 1,624,569
Glendale – 248,325
Peoria – 190,985
Surprise – 143,148
Sun City – 39,931
Sun City West – 25,806
Anthem – 23,190
New River – 17,290

Voting

Year	Office	Results
2004	President	Bush 53–46%
2008	President	McCain 52–46%
2012	President	Romney 62–37%
2016	President	Trump 58–37%
2020	President	Trump 57–41%

John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, was also a resident of Arizona and one of the state's two United States Senators.

List of members representing the district

Arizona began sending an eighth member to the House after the 2000 Census. Prior to this time, most of the 8th's current territory was in the 5th district.

Member (Residence)	Party	Years	Cong ress	Electoral history	District location^[7]^[8]^[9]
District created January 3, 2003
Jim Kolbe (Tucson)	Republican	January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007	108th 109th	Redistricted from the 5th district. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Retired.	2003–2013 Cochise; parts of Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz
Gabby Giffords (Tucson)	Democratic	January 3, 2007 – January 25, 2012	110th 111th 112th	Elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Re-elected in 2010. Resigned.
Vacant		January 25, 2012 – June 19, 2012	112th
Ron Barber (Tucson)	Democratic	June 19, 2012 – January 3, 2013	112th	Elected to finish Giffords's term. Redistricted to the 2nd district.
Trent Franks (Glendale)	Republican	January 3, 2013 – December 8, 2017	113th 114th 115th	Redistricted from the 2nd district. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Resigned.	2013–2023 Part of Maricopa
Vacant		December 8, 2017 – May 7, 2018	115th
Debbie Lesko (Peoria)	Republican	May 7, 2018 – present	115th 116th 117th 118th	Elected to finish Franks's term. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020. Re-elected in 2022. Retiring at end of term.
Debbie Lesko (Peoria)	Republican	May 7, 2018 – present	115th 116th 117th 118th		2023–present: Part of Maricopa

Complete election results

2002

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2002
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jim Kolbe	126,930	63.33
	Democratic	Mary Judge Ryan	67,328	33.59
	Libertarian	Joe Duarte	6,142	3.06
	Write-In	Jim Dorrance	28	0.01
Majority			59,602	29.74
Total votes			200,428	100.00

2004

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jim Kolbe (Incumbent)	183,363	60.36
	Democratic	Eva Bacal	109,963	36.20
	Libertarian	Robert Anderson	10,443	3.44
Majority			73,400	24.16
Total votes			303,769	100.00
	Republican hold

2006

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Gabby Giffords	137,655	54.25
	Republican	Randy Graf	106,790	42.09
	Libertarian	David F. Nolan	4,849	1.91
	Independent	Jay Quick	4,408	1.74
Majority			30,865	12.16
Total votes			253,720	100.00
	Democratic gain from Republican

2008

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Gabby Giffords (Incumbent)	179,629	54.72
	Republican	Tim Bee	140,553	42.82
	Libertarian	Paul Davis	8,081	2.46
Majority			39,076	11.90
Total votes			328,266	100.00
	Democratic hold

2010

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Gabby Giffords (Incumbent)	138,280	48.76
	Republican	Jesse Kelly	134,124	47.30
	Libertarian	Steven Stoltz	11,174	3.94
Majority			4,156	1.46
Total votes			283,578	100.00
	Democratic hold

2012 (special)

Arizona's 8th congressional district special election — June 12, 2012
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Ron Barber	111,203	52.32
	Republican	Jesse Kelly	96,465	45.39
	Green	Charlie Manolakis	4,869	2.29
Majority			14,739	6.93
Total votes			212,538	100.00
	Democratic hold

2012

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Trent Franks	172,809	63.35
	Democratic	Gene Scharer	95,635	35.06
	Americans Elect	Stephen Dolgos	4,347	1.59
Majority			77,174	28.29
Total votes			272,791	100.00
	Republican hold

2014

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, November 4, 2014
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Trent Franks (Incumbent)	128,710	75.8
	Americans Elect	Stephen Dolgos	41,066	24.2
Majority			87,644	50.6
Total votes			169,776	100.00
	Republican hold

2016

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Trent Franks (Incumbent)	204,942	68.6
	Green	Mark Salazar	93,954	31.4
Majority			110,988	37.2
Total votes			298,896	100
	Republican hold

2018 (special)

Arizona's 8th congressional district special election - April 24, 2018^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Debbie Lesko	96,012	52.37	-16.23
	Democratic	Hiral Tipirneni	87,331	47.63	+47.63
Total votes			183,343	100.0
Majority			8,681	4.74
	Republican hold		Swing	-16.2%

2018

Arizona's 8th congressional district, 2018^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Debbie Lesko (Incumbent)	168,835	55.5
	Democratic	Hiral Tipirneni	135,569	44.5
	New Paradigm Party	Steven Hummel (write-in)	13	0.0
Total votes			304,417	100.0
	Republican hold

2020

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2020
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Debbie Lesko (incumbent)	251,633	59.6
	Democratic	Michael Muscato	170,816	40.4
	Write-in		18	0.0
Total votes			422,467	100.0
	Republican hold

2022

Arizona's 8th congressional district election, 2022
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Debbie Lesko (incumbent)	197,555	96.5
	Democratic	Jeremy Spreitzer (write-in)	5,145	2.5
	Democratic	Alixandria Guzman (write-in)	2,013	1.0
Total votes			204,713	100.0
	Republican hold

References

^ Center for New Media & Promotion (CNMP), US Census Bureau. "My Congressional District". www.census.gov.
^ Center for New Media & Promotion (CNMP), US Census Bureau. "My Congressional District". www.census.gov.
^ "2022 Cook PVI: District Map and List". Cook Political Report. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
^ "Maps for the 2012 election" (PDF). Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
^ Arizona Redistricting: Commission releases draft map. Daily Kos, October 4, 2011
^ Condon, Stephanie (January 23, 2012). "Gabrielle Giffords' resignation prompts special election". CBS News. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
^ Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, 1789-1983. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
^ Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
^ Congressional Directory: Browse 105th Congress Archived February 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^ "U.S. Representative in Congress - District No. 8". Arizona Secretary of State. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
^ "2018 Arizona general election results" (PDF). Arizona Secretary of State. Retrieved June 9, 2019.