'DC is broken': Trump-aligned Republican announces her retirement
Just hours after the failed House speakership vote on Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a Trump-allied Republican in Arizona announced she will not seek re-election in 2024, blasting the dysfunction in Congress as part of the reason for her exit.
The announcement by Rep. Debbie Lesko was flagged by Punchbowl News' Mica Soellner.
"I want to spend more time with my husband, my 94-year-old mother, my three children, and my five grandchildren," said Lesko. "Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done."
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Lesko was first elected in a 2018 special election, triggered when former Republican Rep. Trent Franks resigned following accusations of sexual misconduct.
She previously garnered controversy by claiming that impeaching former President Donald Trump over January 6 would just "incite more violence," and defending a GOP statehouse candidate who paraded in blackface.
Lesko's district in the northwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area is heavily conservative; it has trended left in recent years and was made slightly less Republican-favoring in redistricting, but Trump carried the area now including the district by just under 14 points in 2020.
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