TUCSON — Pete Buttigieg paid no mind to the unofficial presidential campaign buttons bearing his name that were for sale outside when he arrived in Southern Arizona for a rally with Democratic congressional hopeful JoAnna Mendoza.
“The focus has to be on 2026. We're just over seven weeks away from an absolutely critical election," Buttigieg said. "So much depends on what happens in the next Congress and on electing leaders like Jo Mendoza. So that's where my focus is."
Buttigieg, a former transportation secretary, was in Pima County on Sept. 12 to stump for Mendoza, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Arizona.
The pair drew some 1,000 supporters to the Pima County Fairgrounds, where they took shots at Ciscomani
and promised to put a check on President Donald Trump’s administration.
“We're ready,” Mendoza said from the stage. “Failure is not an option.”
Things are getting down to the wire in Arizona's 6th Congressional District, which stretches across Pima County, including much of Tucson, and Cochise County. The candidates faced off in their only televised debate on Sept. 10, and mail voters will get their ballots in less than a month.
“Arizona is at a crossroads. Our state voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Let's not forget that they also voted for Juan Ciscomani in 2024. We're going to change that this year,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said.
It’s a high-stakes race. The outcome of the swing seat contest could determine the balance of Congress in November. Ciscomani won the district by 2.5 percentage points in 2024, the narrowest margin for any Arizona House lawmaker that year.
With that in mind, Buttigieg is the latest high-profile Democrat to stump with Mendoza in Southern Arizona. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, who lives in Tucson, appeared on stage with Mendoza in August for a panel on veterans' issues.
Both men are weighing presidential campaigns, and Arizona is a key battleground for any presidential hopeful.
Mendoza was diplomatic about who she might support in two years.
“Here’s what I will say: I would love to see a veteran as a commander-in-chief, and that’s all I’m going to give you right now. Sorry, but that’s it. But I would love to see a veteran in that position,” Mendoza told reporters after the rally.
Buttigieg, Kelly and Mendoza all served in the military.
Earlier in the day, Buttigieg and Mendoza snacked on chips and salsa at Tucson restaurant Rancho Rústico and bonded over raising colicky babies, Mendoza said.
The pair first met when Mendoza was working for former Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Arizona, and Buttigieg came to see a dangerous intersection in the district as part of his work as President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary.
They kept in touch. Buttigieg gave Mendoza a call to ask how things were going with her congressional campaign a few months ago, and she invited him to Tucson.
Their original event, planned for June, was derailed when Buttigieg was the victim of a false swatting incident.
When Buttigieg finally made it to Tucson, the fired-up crowd in Thurber Hall clapped along to Florence and the Machine’s hit song “Dog Days Are Over” while they waited for him to take the stage.
Several attendees wore Buttigieg presidential campaign T-shirts. Others wore Mendoza campaign merchandise, and several in the crowd wore the numbers “8646,” a reference to getting rid of Trump, the 47th president. Outside, a food truck sold donuts and attendees admired a post-monsoon rainbow.
Buttigieg was eager to take aim at Ciscomani’s record when he took the podium, which had an "ARIZONA TOUGH" sign.
He called the two-term GOP lawmaker a “rubber stamp for every bad idea that comes out of this White House” and knocked him for not having open town halls. Ciscomani, for his part, has highlighted his bipartisan record and cast Mendoza as too far to the left in their battle for Congress.
“Even in a district designed to give him an unfair advantage, you can absolutely beat this guy,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg also hammered Ciscomani for supporting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Lucid Motors blamed for major layoffs at its Casa Grande factory.
Ciscomani has defended his vote for the Republican tax law, saying after the recent debate that Lucid is a private company that makes its own decisions. Ciscomani said he was proud to eliminate an electric vehicle tax credit because it wasn’t helping the middle class.
Despite Buttigieg’s focus on the upcoming Nov. 3 midterms, some people in the crowd were thinking about his political future.
”I want to meet Pete. I think he is an intelligent, positive hope for the future” said Joanne Woodall, 77, of Oro Valley. “I would vote for him in a heartbeat.”
Buttigieg was an unexpected star in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries and still has plenty of support among Democrats. That includes Tucson resident Melissa McClung, who has become more involved in politics over the last several months.
McClung said he appreciates Buttigieg’s honesty and integrity and would “absolutely” support him if he ran for office again. Whether the country is ready for an openly gay president, she said, is another matter.
“Do I think America's ready for it? No. I'm ready for it,” McClung said. “I wish we were, but we’re not.”
Buttigieg sought to address that concern during his remarks on stage, making a point that a majority of Americans agree on issues such as abortion rights, taxing the wealthy, jobs and public schools.
“In a freedom-loving country, you get to be who you are and love who you love without somebody telling you otherwise,” Buttigieg said to applause. “I used to worry about convincing most Americans about the things we believe in on the biggest issues, but nowadays we're there.”
He said the broken political system is to blame for division, and tossed an across-the-aisle compliment to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.
“It is not lost on me that we are in the home state of John McCain, the last person who decided to run for president focused on campaign finance. He wasn't wrong then, and the things he talked about then matter that much more now,” Buttigieg said.
McCain championed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which was eventually weakened by the Supreme Court.
At another point in his speech, Buttigieg talked about how he explains the Trump era to his two young kids, and highlighted his work for the Biden administration, which included bringing money to the 6th district to support improving the 22nd Street Bridge in Tucson.
He also played up his background as an Arizona Democratic Party organizer in 2004.
“I still remember turning up at the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters, now more than 20 years ago, for my first job out of college working for the party. We had T-shirts that said ‘Turn Arizona Blue,’ and at the time, that seemed like a very uphill proposition,” Buttigieg said. “But a lot has changed since the first time I set foot in Arizona as a Democrat.”
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pete Buttigieg fires up Tucson crowd in big Arizona congressional race
