Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick says she won’t seek re-election in 2022
Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona announced Friday that she will not seek re-election in 2022 and will retire from Congress at the end of her term.
“Serving Arizonans has been my absolute honor and joy, but after much consideration, I have decided not to seek re-election in 2022. I will continue the good fight through this Congress, and when the term is up, I will hand over the baton,” she said in a statement.
Kirkpatrick, who is serving in her fifth term, said as Arizona “continues to grow, I hope our representation does as well.”
“I look forward to seeing new and diverse perspectives emerge to lead Arizona forward,” she said.
Last year, Kirkpatrick announced that she would seek treatment for “alcohol dependence” after suffering a serious fall.
But she told the Arizona Republic that her health and recovery from alcohol dependency was “not a factor at all” in her decision to not seek reelection.
She told the newspaper that she’s “always been a proponent of term limits” and that “I’m sort of term-limiting myself.”
She also said that she would like to spend more time with her three grandsons.
Kirkpatrick was first elected to Congress in 2008 to represent Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, a district that Republicans had handily won in previous elections. She lost a bid for reelection in 2010 to GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, only to win election to the district in 2012 against a different Republican opponent. She was able to hold onto her seat in the 2014 midterms, despite the tough political climate that swept similar Democrats out of office nationwide and without backing down from her support of the Affordable Care Act.
She unsuccessfully challenged Republican Sen. John McCain for his seat in 2016 but gave the late Arizona senator what was viewed as the toughest reelection fight of his career.
Arizona voters sent Kirkpatrick back to Washington in the 2018 midterm elections. She won reelection to represent Arizona’s 2nd District, the southern part of the state bordering Mexico — the second time she flipped a seat that was formerly held by Republicans. She won her fifth term to Congress in 2020.
