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Debra Kay Lesko ( LESS-koh; née Lorenz; born November 14, 1958) is an American politician who has represented Arizona's 8th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2018. The district is in the West Valley portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria, and part of western Phoenix. A member of the Republican Party, Lesko previously served in the Arizona State Legislature from 2009 to 2018. Lesko served in the Arizona Senate from 2015 to 2018. She was president pro tempore of the Arizona Senate from 2017 to 2018. Lesko also served as a member of Arizona House of Representatives from 2009 until 2015. She became the Representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district after winning a 2018 special election. In October 2023, Lesko announced she would not seek reelection in 2024. She later announced a run for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors representing District 4. Early life and education Lesko was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Her parents are Donald and Delores Lorenz. She received a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and moved to Arizona in the 1980s, where she owned a construction sales business. In 1985, she married Jeffrey Allen Ignas. Legal issues In 1988, Lesko was charged with a misdemeanor in Conroe, Texas, for tampering with government records. The case was dropped in 1994. Also in 1988, Lesko's then-husband Jeffrey Allen Ignas was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud. He was released from prison in 1992. In October 1992, Lesko and Ignas filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. The couple was sued twice in 1993: for failure to pay a $10,000 rental equipment bill and for an additional unpaid $11,000 bill. They filed for bankruptcy again that year. Ignas was allegedly abusive to Lesko, reportedly punching her in the stomach when she was pregnant. Later in 1993, Lesko filed for divorce. In 1994 the second bankruptcy protection case was closed. Ignas, now known as Jeffrey Allen Herald, was again incarcerated at the Arizona Department of Corrections, and released in June 2022 on supervised probation. Lesko later married Joe Lesko. She has used other names, including Debbie Harris, Debra Ignas, Debra Schultz, Debra Howard and Debra Kay Lorenz. Her name changes were associated with Ignas, who also went by different names. Early career In the early 2000s, Lesko became involved in the Peoria Unified School District where she served on the district's community committee. In 2006, she ran for school board. Lesko was endorsed by U.S. Representative Trent Franks. She placed fourth out of five candidates. She participated in school board meetings and was a contributor to The Arizona Republic. Her contributions to the newspaper included opinion pieces about illegal immigration and domestic violence. On November 4, 2008, Lesko was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives. She was reelected in 2010 and 2012. In 2014, Lesko was elected to the Arizona State Senate. She was endorsed by the Arizona Police Association, AZ Right to Life, and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. She ran unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated Democratic nominee Carolyn Vasko in the general election. In 2016, she ran unopposed in the primary and general election. U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2018 special election On December 20, 2017, Lesko announced she would run in the special election to replace Representative Trent Franks, who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. Her state senate district included the bulk of the congressional district. She also announced her resignation from the Arizona Senate. Although Arizona's resign-to-run laws allowed her to remain in the state senate since she was running in a special election (and she was in the final year of her term in any event), she resigned on January 8, 2018. Lesko won the Republican nomination and faced the Democratic nominee, physician Hiral Tipirneni, in the special general election on April 24. She was endorsed by President Donald Trump, who said that Lesko was a "conservative Republican". She won the special general election, with 52.6% of the vote to Tipirneni's 47.4. The win was by a narrower margin than expected, with observers suggesting that it was indicative of a coming Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm elections. It was the closest contest in what is now the 8th since 1976, when Bob Stump won what was then the 3rd District with just 47% of the vote (the district was renumbered as the 2nd in 2003, and has been the 8th since 2013). According to the Associated Press, the election sent "a big message to Republicans nationwide: Even the reddest of districts in a red state can be in play this year." 2018 Lesko defeated Tipirneni again for a full two-year term by a slightly wider margin, taking 55.5% to Tipirneni's 44.5%. It was still the closest general election in the district in 42 years, and the closest a Democrat had come to winning a full term in the district since Stump switched parties in 1982. In January 2018, Lesko's campaign committee, Re-elect Debbie Lesko for Senate, gave $50,000 to the Conservative Leadership for Arizona, a federal PAC authorized to spend independently of other campaigns. It was created eight days before taking the money from Lesko's state campaign committee. The PAC raised almost no other cash and used the money to support Lesko with yard signs, while her congressional campaign spent heavily on television ads. Phil Lovas, a candidate in the Republican primary, complained to the Federal Election Commission and Arizona Attorney General alleging multiple violations in February 2018. The PAC maneuver also prompted criticism from Lesko's other opponent in the Republican primary, Steve Montenegro. In March 2018, the Campaign Legal Center filed a federal campaign finance law violation complaint against Lesko, alleging that her transfer of $50,000 from her state campaign to an independent group that spent nearly all the cash backing her congressional run was illegal. 2020 In the 2020 election, Lesko defeated Democratic nominee Michael Muscato with 60% of the vote. 2022 Lesko ran for reelection in 2022 without opposition in the primary or general election. Tenure During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lesko appeared at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at a time when coronavirus cases were surging across the nation. When asked about the public health risk the rally posed, she responded, "I think the Trump administration and the campaign is doing all it can by doing temperature checks and handing out masks." She defended the rally organizers' decision not to require face masks. During the time, she posted pictures of herself among people; in some pictures she wore a mask, in others she did not. As of October 2021, Lesko had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 13.9% of the time. Committee assignments For the 118th Congress: Committee on En.... Discover the Robert Barr Debra Yates popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Robert Barr Debra Yates books.