Representative Debbie Lesko Won't Run for Re-Election to Arizona's 8th Congressional District

Lesko becomes the 16th House retirement of the 2024 election cycle.

Representative Debbie Lesko of Arizona, a Republican, has today announced that she will not seek a fourth term representing the state’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Lesko released the following statement: “It has been a great honor to serve the people of Arizona's 8th Congressional District in Congress, however, I have decided not to run for reelection in 2024. I want to spend more time with my husband, my 94-year-old mother, my three children, and my five grandchildren. Spending, on average, three weeks out of every month away from my family, and traveling back and forth to Washington, D.C. almost every weekend is difficult. Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done. Please know that I will continue my work to improve Congress and to help my constituents and the American people. We must all work toward that end. I want to thank all of the people who have supported me throughout the years. Please know that my office and I will continue to passionately serve our constituents and our nation until the end of my term in January 2025.”

Lesko, 64, is the 16th retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives for the upcoming 2024 cycle - 11 Democrats and 5 Republicans. She is the second House Republican to retire without seeking another office - joining Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

Lesko has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since May 2018. Arizona’s 8th Congressional District contains the suburbs north and west of Phoenix in Maricopa County. It includes the cities of Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria and parts of western Phoenix. Lesko was first elected in a special election to succeed Representative Trent Franks, also a Republican, following his resignation due to a sexual harassment scandal.

Before joining the federal government, Lesko served in the Arizona House of Representatives - representing District 9 from 2009 to 2013 and District 21 from 2013 to 2015. She then represented District 21 in the Arizona State Senate from January 2015 to January 2018 - becoming the chamber’s President Pro Tempore in January 2017. She resigned from the state legislature early to focus on her special election campaign.

The 2018 special election was close. Lesko prevailed 52.37-47.63 against Democrat Hiral Tipimeni. However, Lesko increased her vote margin in every election since then - easily winning in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Notably, she only faced write-in candidates during the 2022 election.

In the 118th Congress, Lesko serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Furthermore, she is a member of the Republican Study Committee and the House Freedom Caucus.

No candidates have currently announced campaigns for the Republican nomination to succeed Lesko in the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, four candidates have already entered the Democratic primary - truck driver Bernadette Green-Placentia, retail worker Steven Sawdy, firefighter Jeremy Spreitzer, and former Defense Department official Greg Whitten.

In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump won Arizona’s 8th Congressional District with a 57.3-41.4 finish against Joe Biden. That came as Biden was carrying the state 49.36-49.06 in his ultimately successful national campaign.