Good evenin and welcome to Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Tonight we continue our 2026 AZ vote series with a focus on Congressional District six, which includes much of southeastern Arizona, including suburbs of Tucson.

Joanna Mendoza is the Democratic candidate for Congressional District six.

She joins us now.

We should note tha we invited Republican candidate.

Incumbent wants to tonight's discussion, but he did not respond to our invitations.

It's good to have you here.

Thank you so much Thank you for the opportunity.

You bet.

Yo this this particular district.

A lot going on down there.

What's the most pressing issue?

Cause I mean, you know, we hear all throughout the district that people just can't affor groceries, they can't afford gas utilities, especially during the summer.

I mean, you know, i gets really hot here in Arizona.

And so people, you know, can' afford their their energy bill.

And so it's cost, cost health care.

And I will even go as far as saying safety of our communities because this is a border district.

Indeed.

Let's talk about cos and the idea of maybe tax cuts.

Republicans say tax cuts help spur the economy.

Trump administration said the HR one tax and spending cuts were good for America.

The big beautiful bill, tax cuts, spending cuts good for Congressional District six.

Know we're hearing from folks that the tax cuts for billionaires actually are hurting everyday working folks because the tax cuts on overtime and tips don't go far enough.

So those are only good for a short period of time.

I believe it's about two years that are not permanent.

And so I guess you could say that the tax cuts for billionaires and corporations are no good.

But we definitely need to make the tax cuts for overtime and tips permanent.

I was going to say, because the idea that the tax cuts will spur the economy, that is that is a lot of folks think that's the case.

If that's not the case, is there a better way to create jobs, to raise wages, these sorts of things?

Yeah, I mean, there's always a better way and we can always improve.

There were about to there were going to be about 18,000 clean energy jobs that were going to come to the state of Arizona.

Some were going to be down south in the district.

And unfortunately, under this administration, the claw backs to the mone that was appropriated was just, you know, pulled back, which eliminated 18,000 jobs.

And so we really have t look at different ways to ensure that people are able to make ends meet.

And people want the dignit of work like they want to work.

It's just really hard, especially in a district that is not only partly the city of southeast, city of Tucson, but also a lot of the rural communities where there's just no jobs anyways.

But do you have to be or should you be a pro-business candidate with that sort of mindset?

I mean, if people want the dignity of work and they need jobs, why not be pro-business?

Well, look, I'm running to represen the people of southern Arizona.

I was born and raised in Pinal County.

I am the daughter, the proud daughter of farmworkers.

You know, I grew up in Eloy, and one of the reasons why I left my small community right after high school was because there were no economic opportunities.

I grew up in rural poverty, Snap food stamps, Medicaid access here in Arizona.

And so what it really is abou is about bringing quality jobs here to Arizona so that peopl don't have to work 2 to 3 jobs.

My parents work hard and they still couldn't make ends meet.

You referred to health care earlier.

How do you make health care more affordable?

And again, we can start with Medicaid, but we can go to Medicare in a second here.

But I mean, the HR one, again, lots of cuts as far as Medicaid is concerned.

Is that a good thing for the district?

Well, here' what I'll say about that, Ted, is that, you know, Mr.

Cisco Money stated in a letter that he knew how devastating Medicaid cuts would be to Arizona's six congressional district, and he promised that he would not cut those and then turn around and voted for H.R.

one.

And that is a huge betraya to the people of this district.

Additionally, the ACA subsidies were not expanded.

I mean, he voted against expanding those, and a lot of folk could not afford their premiums.

I mean, it went up several hundred dollars for people.

So they're not renewing their plans.

And as we're getting into the winner, you know, we have flu season and people usually get sick.

I mean, people need that health care.

But again, the opposing side would say that there's waste there's fraud and there's abuse in Medicaid system around the around the country.

And it's time to look at thos roles, look at the eligibility and figure out who reall belongs there and who doesn't.

And if so many people are off, Medicaid rolls could likely be off, especially Snap coming up at the end of the year.

Doesn't that suggest something?

Well, Snap people are being impacted by that.

I mean, we hear from voter in the district that, you know, they're they're having to submit all of their paperwork back into the portal.

And in terms of, you know, the cuts, look, we need to restore the Medicaid cuts.

We need to restore progra safety net programs for families because they desperately need them.

But I will say that there is a way to do this so that you're not negatively impactin such a large number of people.

We can address fraud, we can address abuse in the system, but it's not in eliminating these safety net programs and then getting huge tax cut and tax breaks to billionaires and corporations As far as Medicare is concerned.

Real quickly here, first of all, is it solvent?

And secondly, what do you tell young people who look at Medicare and think that is there's no wa that's going to be there for me?

Well, I think, you know young people are already feeling that not just with, you know, Medicare.

They're looking at, you know, the probably never be able to own a home because homes are not affordable.

I mean, the tariffs under this administration and that Mr.. Has supported is raising the cost on everything, including construction materials, to build more affordable housing.

Let's get to border security.

We only have a certain amount of time.

There are a lot of issues to get to big issue in this particular district.

Compare border securit now with when Democrats are back in some sort of contro during the Biden administration.

Compar I mean, both parties have kicked the can down the road.

It wasn't it wasn't any bette under the Biden administration.

And it's not better now.

And it hasn't been for a really long time, Ted.

I mean, you know, when folks run for elected office, they run for Congress and they say they're going to fix these systems.

I mean, Mr.

Cisco, money has been there for two terms, and we still don't have a secure border I mean, there are still issues.

But is it not more secure than it was during the Biden administration?

Are you arguing that it's less secure?

No.

Well, what I'm saying is that, you know, there are some things that eac administration did that helped.

But overall, we not only need border security, but we need to address immigration reform.

So we're talking worker visas.

We're talking the system that has been bogged down in backlog for such a long time.

And I do want to add, you know, for for border security, I mean, as a United States Marine, you know, who did serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, like national security, the safety of our community and the homeland is absolutely a priority.

And so what I think we need t be really strategic and smart.

There are places where a wall makes sense and there's places where it doesn't.

We need to modernize our ports of entry, ensure that we are working with Mexico, which now we have not a great working relationship with them.

Ensure local law enforcement, like county sheriff's departments down in coaches have the resources they need to secure the border on this side for our communities.

On this side of the border.

Let's talk about Ice.

Real quickly.

Is it a rogue agency?

Should it be abolished?

We it should not be abolished.

Let me start by saying that Ice, you do have agents who are running rampant and rogue, and they are violating constitutional rights.

They're not following the letter of the law.

I mean, a lot of these agents were hired and they weren't properly vetted or trained, and then they were giving bonuses to folks to entice them to join the organization.

So we need to rein in rogue Ice agents, and we need to make sure that we're working with our local law enforcement to ensure that our communities are saf when we don't have the resources that we need to secure the border, we see a rise in cartels and drug trafficking and human trafficking.

And as a matter of fact, I'll tell you this.

You know, we were down in Safford, which is in the district, talking to the police chief down there, and he shared with us, when resources are not at the border, they see a spike in crime in the local community.

And there are only a 23 police officer force.

So imagine that 23 police officers who secure the community is not enough.

I want to talk about something that has been reported that some online comments that you made prior to your campaign launch, you raise these from social media progressive comments dating back to 2020, George Floyd, that particular area era, I should say.

You talked about militarized police force, occupying army, systemic racism as a part of our nation.

Those are relatively progressive ideas.

Are they to progressive?

Are they too liberal for this particular district?

Well, look, I mean, the fact that this has been a conversation, social media scrubbing, that's not what we're hearing from people in the community.

What they're concerned about is the cost.

They're concerned about health care.

They're concerned about border security.

And what I will say is that, look, I've never have supported defund the police.

I said it back in 2020 whe I ran for the state legislature.

I I'll say it again here.

I do not support defund the police.

And as a matter of fact there are statements out there that say that I support more resources for local law enforcement.

So it's just mischaracterizing my statement.

Okay, but but you did scrub them.

How come you did that?

Well, the social media account wasn't necessarily scrubbed.

It's a really standard practice for a lot of congressional campaigns to actually start kind of fresh and new, but they were not scrubbed.

And you know what?

To be quite honest, Ted, I mean, these things are not things that we need to be talking about.

We have a war in Iran right no where you have service members who are jumping off the ship because they're not getting the food rations they need, and they're not getting the support and resources they need.

Yeah, I got you on that.

But I mean, this is this is a pretty close race, and this is a pretty centrist kind of a district here.

And I'm asking again.

Can you be too liberal and to progressive for this particular.

Well, I am not I'll say that.

I mean, I am not progressive, I'm not liberal.

What I am as someone who is interested in serving the communities and being bringing servant leadership back to the community.

And, you know, we need to focus on the issues that are impacting people.

And I think right now in our politics, so divisive, and you have both sides screaming at each other, what we hear from folks on the ground is tha they're sick and tired of that.

They just want someone to address the solutions.

And so that's what I plan on bringing.

As far as the war in Iraq, because we're running out of time here.

The Republicans and the administration will say it's necessary because of Iran's backing of terror around the world for decades.

Do they have a point?

Well, look, I served in the Middle East to combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, as a marine.

And what I will share with you is that if there were intelligence that that basically stated that Iran had the materials to make a nuclear weapon, nuclear bomb, then why not share that with the House Foreign Intelligence Committee and why not get a war resolution passed?

I mean, my opponent, Mr.

Cisco Mani, voted several times against that.

He supports the president, his decision in Iran.

And right now there's no measure of success there.

You know, obviously, as I mentioned before, not enough resources.

They're not taking care of our troops.

And I have spoken to parents, not just, you know, Democrats, but conservative parents who are terrified that their kids are going to come back and flag draped coffins.

They promise no more wars, no more forever wars.

And we're back in the Middle East.

And that's a promise broken by this president, by this administration.

And Mr.. Last question.

If Democrats take the House and there's a shot that this could happen and you wind up winning this particular race, would you work to impeach the president?

I don't think that should be the focus, to be honest, Ted, I think people right now need relief and we need to focus on ensuring that people can provide for their families, feed their kids, have access to health care, and that they're able to get good paying jobs so they can actually provide for their families.

That said, do you think the president has committed impeachable offenses?

Well, I mean, he committed impeachable offenses the first time and he was impeached and not removed.

So what I will tell you right now is that this the policies of this administration are really hurting people in our community.

And Mr.

Cisco has not done anything t stand up to this administration.

Johanna Mendoza, again, Democratic candidat for Congressional District six.

We thank you so much for joining us and participating in the discussion.

I appreciate it.

Thank Ted.