Republican congressman accuses top Arizona Democratic officials of ‘publicity stunts’

PHOENIX — Arizona U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani on Wednesday labeled recent actions by two of the state’s top Democratic officials as “publicity stunts.”

The Republican used the term in response to questions about Attorney General Kris Mayes and U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego during an interview with KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

First, Ciscomani was asked what he thought about Mayes suing Speaker Mike Johnson for failing to swear Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva into office nearly a month after she won a special election to fill her late father’s seat.

“Our attorney general just seems to love these publicity stunts, and she’s done this before, of course. … She loves suing Republicans. I think she’s done that 28 times with President Trump, and thankfully she’s not a very good attorney,” he said.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani backs House speaker in delay on swearing in Adelita Grijalva

The shutdown started Oct. 1, a week after the special election in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District. Johnson initially said he was waiting for the results to be officially certified despite Grijalva’s landslide victory. Final certification was completed Oct. 14.

Ciscomani went on to say that while he wants the residents in his neighboring southern Arizona district to be represented, he supports Johnson in the matter.

“Had the Democrats not shut down the government, she would have already been sworn in,” he said. “The speaker has been clear on this. The government is shut down. We need to get back to work. The Democrats need to open the government so that we can do this.”

The House already passed a bill to fund the government and end the shutdown, but the measure hasn’t garnered the 60 votes needed for approval in the Senate.

Gallego and other Democrats are holding out in an effort to get Republicans to extend earned tax credits that make health insurance purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces more affordable for millions of Americans. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year.

Ciscomani said he wants to address the credits, too, but as something to be negotiated after the government reopens.

“We were having these discussions before and we need to continue to have them,” he said. “So, we need to reopen the government so that we can go back to those conversations and make sure that people don’t get shot by increased premiums at this point.”

How did Juan Ciscomani respond to Ruben Gallego’s town hall challenge?

Ciscomani also was asked about his back-and-forth with Gallego this week on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Ciscomani accused Gallego of hypocrisy for keeping his paycheck while voting against the bill to reopen the government.

Gallego ended the exchange with the following challenge:

“Juan, you seem eager to spar on Twitter. I’m fighting for working families while you cower behind tweets and strip health care from the very people you claim to represent. Let’s do a live town hall in your district — neutral moderators, straight answers — and see who’s really fighting for Arizonans.”

As he did with Mayes’ lawsuit, he shrugged off Gallego’s challenge as another Democratic publicity stunt.

“I’m accusing him exactly of that, just doing publicity stunts and these kind of things,” Ciscomani said Wednesday. “And then he comes back with the idea of of this town hall. What my message to him is like, ‘Go to Washington, do your job, open the government, let’s go to work.’ And then, you know, things need to get fixed and he’s over here sitting being a Twitter warrior, so he just needs to get to work.”

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