In December 2024, Juan Ciscomani couldn't wait to get started.
"This is why I am thrilled to join the DOGE Caucus," the southern Arizona congressman said, promising to work closely with President-elect Trump's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency — Elon Musk's cost-cutting operation — to "streamline bloated government bureaucracies" and "put America back on the path of fiscal responsibility."
Two years later, with his seat on the line, he won't talk about it.
Ciscomani's campaign strategist didn't respond to questions about DOGE from the Tucson Sentinel, which reported on Monday that "Ciscomani has stopped talking about DOGE." But Musk hasn't stopped helping Ciscomani.
What DOGE did
Ciscomani met with Musk before Trump took office and backed the DOGE effort, according to the Sentinel. Here is what that effort turned out to be:
- A team of young tech workers with no government experience — one of them nicknamed "Big Balls" — combing through the federal budget and Americans' sensitive data.
- About a quarter-million federal workers pushed out of their jobs, with the Education Department, USAID, the General Services Administration and the Defense Department among the hardest hit.
- Claimed savings of $110 billion — far short of Musk's $2 trillion goal — that a government accountability report in August 2026 said could not be verified, the Sentinel reported.
The DOGE Caucus Ciscomani was so excited to join held two meetings, then went quiet. By May 2025, a member of Congress told Politico it was "dead."
His opponent, Democrat and Marine veteran JoAnna Mendoza, pointed out who got hurt. About 30% of federal workers are veterans, she told the Sentinel, "and it's really impacted the veteran hospitals."
Musk is still spending for him
Ciscomani may have gone quiet about Musk. Musk's money hasn't gone quiet about Ciscomani.
Elon Musk's super PAC, America PAC — which we've tracked in Maine's Senate race — has filed notices with the Federal Election Commission reporting more than $85,000 in digital ads opposing Mendoza in October alone, according to FEC records. Trump's MAGA Inc. reported another $45,000 against her.
So Ciscomani gets the help of the world's richest man, without having to answer for what that man's project did.
'Fiscal responsibility'
Ciscomani joined DOGE promising to fix the national debt. Then he voted for Trump's 2025 budget bill, which the Sentinel notes has made the deficit bigger. The Sentinel reports that the deficit rose to $2 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September, up from $1.8 trillion the year before.
That bill paid for big tax cuts tilted toward the highest earners partly by cutting health care and food assistance. We've written about how that law has knocked more than 400,000 Arizonans off food assistance — and how, six weeks after Lucid cut about 700 jobs in Casa Grande, Ciscomani brought the House Speaker there for a roundtable on how well the tax law is working.
He isn't the only Republican whose DOGE talk didn't match the results. Oklahoma's Tom Cole had his own plan for reining Musk in: asking him nicely over bourbon.
The short version
In December 2024, Juan Ciscomani said he was "thrilled" to join the DOGE Caucus and work with Elon Musk's cost-cutting team, which went on to push out about a quarter-million federal workers while claiming savings that couldn't be verified. Now his campaign won't answer questions about DOGE — while Musk's America PAC has reported more than $85,000 in October digital ads against his opponent.
