• Dr. Hiral Tipirneni takes on Rep. David Schweikert in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.
  • Tipirneni, a doctor and cancer researcher, has over ten times more cash on hand than Schweikert.
  • Schweikert admitted to 11 violation counts of misused taxpayer funds in July 2020 and was reprimanded on the House floor and fined $50,000.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Incumbent Rep. David Schweikert vies to retain his seat against Democratic Challenger Dr. Hiral Tipirneni to represent Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.

The candidates

Schweikert, the incumbent, was investigated in 2018 by the United States House Committee over misuse of campaign funds. In July 2020, Schweikert admitted to 11 violations of House rules and was officially reprimanded and fined $50,000.

A House Ethics Committee report found that Schweikert’s chief of staff improperly donated thousands to his re-election campaign and Schweikert used official House time and resources on his re-election, improperly used campaign funds for personal reasons, pressured staff to work on his re-election campaign, and even fabricated taking a $100,000 loan and spending $100,000 to inflate his financial posturing.

A denier of climate change, Schweikert said in a 2014 interview that, “I think it’s incredibly arrogant, you know, for the Al Gores of the world to stand up and say the world’s coming to an end.”

Tipirneni, Schweikert's Democratic opponent, worked as an emergency physician for eight years before becoming a scientific review officer with the Society of Research Administrators International. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Maricopa Health Foundation. Tipirneni was defeated in a 2018 special election for Arizona's 8th congressional district where she lost to Debbie Lesko.

The district

Arizona's 6th Congressional District encompasses a portion of Maricopa County and the northeastern suburbs of Phoenix, including Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, and Cave Creek. The district has only been represented by a Democrat for one term in the district's short history.

Trump carried the sixth district by a margin of ten percentage points in 2016, according to the Daily Kos, and 2018 Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally carried it by three points over Democrat Kyrsten Sinema two years ago.

But the nationwide suburban swing towards Democrats, Schweikert's recent scandals, and Tipirneni's profile as a doctor in a state and district that's been especially hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic could make this race especially competitive in the context of 2020.

The money race

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Tipirneni has raised $2.5 million - over a million more than Schweikert with $1.3 million. Tipirneni also has a large reserve of cash on hand, over ten times as much as Schweikert.

What some of the experts say

Arizona's sixth district, located in the northwest suburbs of Phoenix, is an under-the-radar competitive House district where Democrats could expand their margins and even flip away from Republican control. The seat is currently rated as a tossup by the Cook Political Report while Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia and Inside Elections both rate the race as leans Republican.