Arizona’s New Congressional Map Could Lead to GOP Gains in 2022

Arizona’s redistricting commission on Wednesday approved a new congressional map that complicates the re-election of a House member from each political party and makes an open district more winnable for Republicans.

The commission voted 5–0 for a new nine-district map that added more Republicans to the district of Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D) and more Democrats to the district of Rep. David Schweikert (R).

“We have a map on the table that is not perfect but yet I think encompasses many compromises and does more good than harm to our collective communities of interest,” Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission chair Erika Neuberg said before the vote.

Commissioner Shereen Lerner, who had expressed concerns about earlier iterations of the map, said “there’s some good in this map” after changes made Tuesday.

Source: Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission

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O’Halleran’s district, which includes vast swaths of northern and eastern Arizona, would shift from voting for Joe Biden by 50%–48% in the 2020 election to backing Donald Trump by 53%–45%. O’Halleran, a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of centrist Democrats, was re-elected 52%–48% in 2020.

Schweikert, a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, was given a reconfigured district within Maricopa County that would have backed Biden by 50%–49%, compared with Trump’s 51%–47% win in Schweikert’s current district. Schweikert was re-elected 52%–48% in 2020, overcoming allegations about his ethics.

The southeastern district of Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D), who’s not seeking re-election, as revised would have voted evenly between Biden and Trump in 2020 compared with Biden’s 55%–44% win under the current lines.

The district of Rep. Greg Stanton (D) would become less heavily Democratic, from 61%–37% Biden to 54%–44% Biden.

Democrats currently hold five of the nine congressional districts in Arizona, which voted for Biden over Trump by three-tenths of one percentage point in the 2020 election.

With assistance from Brenna Goth and Joyce E. Cutler

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina May at tmay@bloomberglaw.com; Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com