On Tuesday, yet another special election was conducted, this time in Arizona's eighth district, after the retirement of a Republican representative due to a scandal.
The two candidates facing off were Republican Debi Lesko, a state legislator, and Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a doctor specializing in cancer research. While the race involved many factors and tons of local and national money, the star was Sun City, the retirement community outside of Arizona.
Put up for sale beginning in 1960, Sun City, Arizona, began as the classic image of American suburbanism. Entire blocks of houses were designed the same, wealthy white citizens bought the properties and lived picture perfect lives fit with TVs and cars, and people were pouring in trying to join the lifestyle themselves. Since then, Sun City has evolved into a retirement community for both full time Arizonans and elderly citizens who choose to winter in the sunny state.
Sun City makes up a large portion of Arizona's eighth district, so both candidates spent much of their time campaigning to its elderly citizens, who would end up deciding the race. Debi Lesko had already legalized the driving of golf carts on public roads as a way of pleasing the senior citizens, so she had won the hearts of many living in Sun City. However, Hiral Tipirneni realized that with all of the health issues that come with age, affordable health care would be important to seniors as well, and she made this one of her main campaign points.
In the end, Lesko won the race by a 5% margin, with Tipirneni taking a surprising amount of the vote amount these seniors, who everyone expected to vote conservatively. Overall, though, with Sun City as the centerpiece, this election was a reminder of America's suburban age.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/24/us/elections/results-arizona-house-special-election.html
https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona%27s_8th_Congressional_District_special_election,_2018
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/23/17263138/arizona-special-election-live-results-lesko-tipirneni
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sun-city-comes-of-age/
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