Ann Kirkpatrick

Ann Leila Kirkpatrick (born March 24, 1950) is an American politician and retired attorney who served as the U.S. representative for AZ's 2nd congressional district from 2019 to 2023.

Kirkpatrick was born on March 24, 1950, and raised on an Apache Indian reservation near McNary, Arizona.

Her parents were European Americans who lived and worked on the reservation.

Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a general store owner.

When Kirkpatrick was in second grade, her family moved off the reservation to Pinetop-Lakeside.

Her maternal uncle, William Bourdon, was elected as a member of the State House.

Kirkpatrick graduated from Blue Ridge High School as the valedictorian.

In 1972, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona, where she majored in Asian studies and learned to speak Mandarin Chinese.

After a brief experience as a teacher, Kirkpatrick decided to go to law school.

In 1979, she earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona College of Law.

In 1980, she was elected as Coconino County's first woman deputy county attorney.

Kirkpatrick later served as city attorney for Sedona, Arizona.

She was a member of the Flagstaff Water Commission.

In 2004, she taught Business Law and Ethics at Coconino County Community College."

In 2004, Kirkpatrick was elected to represent the 2nd legislative district and took office in January 2005.

Kirkpatrick was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2005 to 2007.

She was reelected in 2006.

In the legislature, Kirkpatrick served as the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee and the Education K–12 Committee and Natural Resources Committee.

On July 24, 2007, Kirkpatrick resigned from the state House to run for the Democratic nomination in Arizona's 1st congressional district.

The seat was due to come open after three-term Republican incumbent Rick Renzi announced that he would not seek reelection in the face of a federal indictment on corruption charges, for which he eventually went to prison.

Kirkpatrick won the four-way primary by almost 15 points on September 2.

Kirkpatrick defeated Republican Sydney Ann Hay, a mining industry lobbyist, in the general election, with 56% of the vote.

Kirkpatrick was defeated for reelection by Republican nominee Paul Gosar, with 49.7% of the vote to Kirkpatrick's 43.7%.

She was endorsed by The Arizona Republic.

First elected to Congress in 2008 in AZ's 1st congressional district, Kirkpatrick was unseated in 2010.

A member of the Democratic Party, she represented AZ's 1st congressional district from 2009 to 2011, and again from 2013 to 2017.

She regained her seat in a close race in 2012 and was reelected in 2014.

Kirkpatrick announced she would run again for her old congressional seat in 2012.

Redistricting made the district significantly more Democratic than its predecessor; Democrats had a nine-point registration advantage.

Kirkpatrick was initially priming for a rematch against Gosar, but Gosar opted to run for reelection in the newly created, heavily Republican 4th district.

Kirkpatrick narrowly won the general election, defeating Republican Jonathan Paton, a former state senator, with less than 50% of the vote, as a Libertarian Party candidate took more than 6%.

Kirkpatrick was reelected with 52.6% of the vote.

She faced no opposition in the Democratic primary.

According to a December 2012 Washington Post article, Kirkpatrick was one of the 10 most vulnerable incumbents in 2014.

She was a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline Program, which was designed to help protect vulnerable Democratic incumbents heading into the 2014 election.

Kirkpatrick ran for the seat in Arizona's 2nd congressional district to replace outgoing Republican Martha McSally, who retired to run for U.S. Senate.

Kirkpatrick had to move across the state, from Flagstaff to Tucson, in order to run.

Kirkpatrick ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 and was defeated by incumbent Republican John McCain.

In 2018, she was elected to Congress in AZ's 2nd congressional district; she was reelected in 2020.

On March 12, 2021, Kirkpatrick announced she would not seek reelection in 2022.