EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — A full day after the polls closed in Arizona, the House of Representatives race between Juan Ciscomani and Kirsten Engel remained undecided.
Only 3,859 votes separated Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani from Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel with an estimated 57 percent of the ballots counted as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. Engel got off to a sizeable lead shortly after the vote-counting began but the incumbent has been chipping away since.
An analysis by Associated Press showed votes remained to be counted in blue-leaning Tucson and in Cochise, Pinal and Graham counties where Ciscomani was doing well.
This is the second consecutive election in which the two rivals vie to represent Arizona’s 6th Congressional District. The first contest two years ago ended with Ciscomani ahead of Engel by fewer than 6,000 votes.
This time, abortion and immigration have played a central role in the contest. The abortion rights state constitutional amendment was passing with the support of 1.3 million voters on Wednesday, giving women the right to terminate a pregnancy up to the time the fetus can live outside the womb.
Ciscomani based his campaign on a promise to contribute to the improvement of the U.S. economy based on his experience in the Arizona-Mexico Commission that promotes binational trade. Ciscomani told Border Report he sees the border through the prism of three priorities: Improving trade, securing the border and refining immigration law. He received the endorsement of the Border Patrol union.
Engel said she supports the bipartisan immigration deal taking shape in Congress at the start of the year before now President-Elect Donald Trump told his party to nix.
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