Arizona’s Second Congressional District is the largest in the state, stretching from south of Phoenix to the Utah border. It's rural, primarily Republican, but with populations on both ends of the political spectrum.
Two candidates are squaring off to represent the district in the U.S. House: incumbent Representative Eli Crane and former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.
Crane has drawn some attention during his first term in the House.
The freshman Republican has mainly sponsored bills concerning veterans, public lands, natural resources and immigration. Two moved forward. None have been signed into law.
But the self-described “outsider” has found company among his fellow hard-right Republicans. Crane believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and in a 2022 podcast interview, he said it was one of the reasons he decided to run for office.
"I believe that there was massive fraud in this last election. For a bunch of different reasons," Crane said.
Crane's team didn’t respond to multiple requests for a taped interview. The incumbent was also a no-show at scheduled debates during the GOP primary and before the general election.
However, he has repeatedly shown up for former President Donald Trump, who's endorsed Crane both times he’s run. Crane joined a group of Republicans outside Trump's hush money trial earlier this year, telling the press Democrats are prosecuting the former president because “they can't beat him."
"They know that President Trump is the biggest obstacle in between them destroying this country and turning it into some totalitarian state — and that's what they want," Crane said.
.@realDonaldTrump could have gone to Florida & lived the American Dream, but he chose to fight for us.
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) May 16, 2024
He's standing in the breach as anti-American forces plot to turn this country into a totalitarian state.
The American people know what’s going on & I’m proud to support DJT. pic.twitter.com/rY5iG2hU31
And the former military sniper recently conducted his own unofficial "investigation" into the July assassination attempt on Trump. He made multiple visits to the Pennsylvania site and promoted conspiracies that claim it was an inside job or carried out by more than one person, including during a recent interview with the far-right network Real America's Voice.
"I don’t put it past some of the people in our government — their willingness to do anything to get rid of President Donald Trump," Crane said.
Then, there's Crane’s role as one of the eight GOP lawmakers who voted to oust the now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
It's one of the primary reasons Democrat and former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez decided to challenge him.
"I think we've all seen this dysfunction happening in Washington, DC," Nez said. "And right in the midst of all that dysfunction is my opponent, Eli Crane, making so much division there."
This is Nez's big return to politics. Over 18 years, he worked his way from Shonto Chapter House vice president to a Navajo County Supervisor and, in 2019, the tribe’s top post.
He lost reelection for president after one term and attributes the defeat to the strict COVID-19 mandates he implemented during the pandemic, as the Navajo Nation faced devastatingly high infection rates.
As a candidate, Nez is focused on local issues, like the need for water in high-growth areas, affordable housing and updated infrastructure throughout the region.
"It is important to advocate for your voters — your constituency — and what is important to them . . ." Nez said. "What I've heard, many times, out there is that we wanna be able to leave something for our children and our grandchildren."
I am running for Congress to put the needs of rural Arizonans ahead of D.C. politics.
— Jonathan Nez (@NezForAZ) August 27, 2024
Enough with the threats of government shutdown and the constant culture wars and extremism.
We need leaders who will put our communities first. Eli Crane won’t. I will.
His campaign marks the first time a Native American candidate from Arizona has advanced past the primaries in a congressional race — a milestone in a district where 20% of residents are Indigenous Native American.
Political observers say it might not be enough, though. Fred Solop is a former Northern Arizona University political science professor specializing in state politics.
"When you look at the Republican vote — when you look at the dominance of the white community in CD2 — the Native American vote gets washed out," Solop said. "It gets diluted substantially."
Solop says Democrats face long odds in the district due to its contrasting populations, geographical size and Conservative slant.
"It's very difficult for a Democrat to win this district," Solop said. "I don't wanna say impossible… but I will say it's a very, very, very uphill battle for any Democrat to win this district at the moment."
That hasn't deterred Nez, though. He’s joined other state and national Democrats on the campaign trail to address topics like voting, reproductive rights and inflation, hoping he can flip the district that many see as an easy win for Crane.
