Juan Ciscomani, the Republican congressman from Arizona's 6th District, is running a new ad against his Democratic opponent, JoAnna Mendoza. In it, a mother from Tucson looks at the camera and says Mendoza "even called parents like me toxic."
Mendoza never said that.
What she actually said
The word "toxic" is real. The target isn't.
It comes from a 2020 state Senate candidate forum, where Mendoza was asked about proposed legislation banning transgender girls from playing on girls' teams. Here is the full quote, as reported by American Journal News:
"I think legislation, like the one that you mentioned, it's harmful, it's toxic. It takes away from who we are as Americans; to want to be inclusive, to want to fight for those that can't fight for themselves, to want to make things better for everyone."
She called a bill toxic. That's it. She didn't call parents toxic, or supporters of the bill toxic, or the mother in Ciscomani's ad toxic.
Ciscomani's campaign took a criticism of a piece of legislation and rewrote it as an insult aimed at moms. That isn't spin or a matter of interpretation — it's a swapped noun, and the tape shows the swap.
Why the ad had to distort it
Here's the thing that makes this worse: Ciscomani didn't need to lie to draw a contrast. He and Mendoza genuinely disagree about this issue. He could have run an ad saying so.
Ciscomani is a cosponsor of H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 — a federal ban on transgender student athletes. He signed on as a cosponsor on January 3, 2025, the first day of the new Congress. The bill passed the House and went to the Senate on January 15, 2025.
That's a real, documented, on-the-record position. He could have simply said: I voted for a national ban; my opponent opposes one. Voters could then decide.
Instead the ad manufactured a personal attack that the record doesn't support. When a campaign has a true version of the argument available and picks the false one, that tells you something about how confident it is in the true one.
For her part, Mendoza's stated position is that these calls shouldn't be made by politicians at all: "Rules about keeping sports fair and safe for young people should be made by the people who know the most—parents, coaches, and sports associations—not politicians."
Arizonans will vote on a referendum on this exact question in November. Voters deserve to weigh it with both candidates' actual positions in front of them — not an invented quote.
Ciscomani has a pattern of saying one thing and doing another
Putting words in an opponent's mouth is a new low, but it fits a habit AZ-06 voters have seen before.
Ciscomani repeatedly promised to protect clean energy tax credits that were creating jobs described as "life-changing" in his own district. Then he voted to gut them. After that vote, he signed a letter asking the Senate to undo the cuts he had just voted for — and then voted for the final bill anyway.
Vote for the cuts. Send a letter saying you're worried about the cuts. Vote for the cuts again. Then run an ad about somebody else's honesty.
You can see the rest of his record on Juan Ciscomani's report card.
The bottom line
Voters in Arizona's 6th District are dealing with grocery prices, health insurance costs, and a housing squeeze. What they got from their congressman this week was an ad built on a quote that doesn't exist.
Ciscomani has a real position on transgender athletes and he's entitled to defend it. Fabricating one for his opponent is a different thing entirely — and it's the kind of thing candidates do when they'd rather not run on their own record.
Source
This post is based on reporting from American Journal News, with cosponsorship records from Congress.gov. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images.
