Iran war sways voters in tight Arizona congressional race

The war with Iran is having an effect on a razor-thin Arizona congressional race that could decide control of the House in this year’s midterms.

At a Tuesday veteran’s town hall event in Tucson, Democratic candidate JoAnna Mendoza used her personal experience to argue against the conflict, one that weighed heavily on several voters in attendance.

“We are done sending our sons and daughters into harm’s way and watching them come back in flag-draped coffins for no good reason,” Mendoza said to applause.

Mendoza, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, is running to unseat incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.

She criticized a recent comment by President Donald Trump suggesting the Iran conflict could last as long as the Vietnam War — which lasted nearly 20 years.

“He has no idea what that does. None. The fact that he would think we could be there forever, and a whole other generation or two are going to experience the same issues and we’re just doing it over, and over and over again,” she said.

Mendoza did not call for the U.S. to withdraw from the conflict.

“Honestly, now we’re there. We can’t just pull troops out of there. So that’s something that we need to start thinking about: What is going to be the strategy for what we’re going to do in Iran?” she said.

The Iran war, currently suspended in a fragile ceasefire, is reportedly far from over as the U.S. and Iran continue to be at odds over peace terms.

The war was a breaking point for a town hall attendee who voted for Trump in 2024.

“I loved every single thing he said. And apparently, I’m seeing completely the opposite of what he said,” said the voter, a 58-year-old Army veteran who asked to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation in his continued defense contracting work.

Trump’s promises to avoid foreign wars had been persuasive to the voter, who said he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“And now we are in the worst one, I think,” he said.

Another veteran, 45-year-old Amanda Maraluna, said the Iran war has caused flashbacks to her service.

“It’s terrifying, you know, and it kind of brings back those memories of being sent to Iraq,” she said.

Maraluna called the feeling that there is “no real reason” for the Iran war “maddening” due to the suffering of both U.S. soldiers and Iranian people. She said she doesn’t remember voting in any elections before she cast a ballot against Trump in 2024. She expressed cynicism of both parties.

“They both say ‘Oh, we’re going to do this’ or ‘We’re going to do that,’ but nobody did anything, really,” she said.

Maraluna said she had never paid attention to a House race until Mendoza’s campaign, which she said appealed to her partly because of their shared experiences as female veterans.

“Yes, she’s running on a Democratic ballot, but her ideas are more Independent,” she said.

Mendoza, a prolific fundraiser who is supported by national Democratic Party organizations, has leaned on her military background throughout her campaign while decrying the rising cost of living and federal cuts to Medicaid.

More than 80,000 veterans live in Arizona’s 6th District, totaling about 12% of the district’s voting-age population, according to census data. That’s about double the national average, according to the Pew Research Center. The district, which includes rural southeast Arizona, parts of Tucson and a slice of Pinal County, contains the Army’s Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

From 2015 to 2019, much of the area was represented by Republican Martha McSally, a 22-year Air Force veteran.

The district is one of only 16 nationwide considered a “toss-up” by the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Ciscomani won the seat by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2024 and fewer than 6,000 votes in 2022.

Compared to Democrats, Ciscomani has offered relatively few thoughts on the Iran war. Initially expressing support for strikes, he later said he opposed sending ground troops to Iran. In March, he said he would vote against a bill curbing Trump’s power to wage war in the country.

According to a polling average by political statistician Nate Silver, fewer than 40% of Americans support the Iran war. According to a recent Republican-commissioned poll of Arizona’s 6th District, Mendoza holds a slight edge over Ciscomani among voters, though over three-quarters said they had not heard of her.