Debbie Lesko will not run for reelection in 2024

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) will not run for reelection in her Phoenix area district in 2024, she announced Tuesday.

“I have decided not to run for reelection in 2024. I want to spend more time with my husband, my 94-year-old mother, my three children, and my five grandchildren,” she said in a statement.

Lesko, a third-term lawmaker, cited the grind of spending “three weeks out of every month away from my family” as one of the factors leading to her decision to retire.

She also noted intransigence in Washington: “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done. Please know that I will continue my work to improve Congress and to help my constituents and the American people. We must all work toward that end.”

Lesko was elected in 2018, winning an April special election to fill a seat left vacant by former GOP Rep. Trent Franks. She won the deep red district, based in the northern and western suburbs of Phoenix, by a closer-than-expected margin — which was heralded as a sign of the incoming Democratic wave later that fall. She has won reelection comfortably ever since. Her district is safely Republican. Trump won it by 13 points in 2020.

Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.