Debbie Lesko Biography |Debbie Lesko
Debbie Lesko(full name: Debra Kay Lesko, née Lorenz) is an American politician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Arizona’s 8th congressional district.
The district is located in the West Valley portion of the Valley of the Sun and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria and part of western Phoenix.
She previously served as a member of the Arizona Senate from 2015 to 2018, representing the state’s 21st district. She also 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 won the Republican nomination for Arizona’s 8th congressional district special election to replace Trent Franks, who resigned from Congress, on February 27, 2018. She won the election on April 24, defeating Democratic nominee Hiral Tipirneni with 52.4% of the vote to Tipirneni’s 47.6%.
She won a full term in November 2018, again defeating Tipirneni. Lesko was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and grew up nearby, the daughter of Don and Delores Lorenz.
She received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin and in the 1980s moved to Arizona, owning a construction sales business. She left an abusive marriage in the 1990s and later married Joe Lesko.
Debbie Lesko Age
Debra Kay Lesko, née Lorenz is an American politician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Arizona’s 8th congressional district. Debbie is 60 years old as of 2018. She was born on 14 November 1958 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States.
Debbie Lesko Election, Views
Debbie Lesko was the Republican nominee for the special election held to replace Congressman Trent Franks, who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. She faced the Democratic candidate, physician Hiral Tipirneni, in the general election on April 24.
She was endorsed by President Donald Trump who said that Lesko was a “conservative Republican”. 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 percent of the vote (the district was renumbered as the 2nd in 2003, and has been the 8th since 2013).
She won the election on April 24, beating Democratic candidate Hiral Tipirneni 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 mid-term elections.
Indeed, it was the closest race in the district since Bob Stump, then a Democrat won his first term in what was then the 3rd District with only 47.5 percent 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 general election
Lesko faced a rematch with Tipirneni in a bid for a full two-year term and won with a slightly wider margin, taking 55.5% to Tipirneni’s 44.5 percent.
It was still the closest general election in the district in 42 years, and the closest that a Democrat had come to winning a full term in the district since Stump switched parties in 1982.
Campaign finance complaints
In January 2018, Lesko’s campaign committee, Re-elect Debbie Lesko for Senate, gave $50,000 to 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 new PAC raised almost no other cash, records show, and the PAC used the money to support Lesko with yard signs, while her congressional campaign spent heavily on TV 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 the other Lesko opponent in the Republican primary, Steve Montenegro, who accused Lesko of “illegally funneling money into her SuperPAC and knowingly lied about it by filing false campaign reports.”
A second complaint alleging federal campaign finance law violations was filed against Lesko in March 2018 by the Campaign Legal Center 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.
Debbie Lesko Net Worth
Debbie Lesko is an American politician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Arizona’s 8th congressional district.
The district is located in the West Valley portion of the Valley of the Sun and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria and part of western Phoenix. His net worth is not yet revealed but stays ready for the update soon
Debbie Lesko Husband, Family, Children
Joseph S. Lesko the husband of Debbie Lesko the couple has three children, her husband serves as an independent fiduciary to entrepreneurs, business owners, and family offices regarding global asset allocation, investment advisory solutions, estate structuring, and complex credit.
Global Capital Strategies (GCS) is a globally-focused multi-family office organized as Registered Investment Adviser. GCS has an operating history dating back to 2001 through its predecessor firm Capital Strategies, which held client assets with Wells Fargo Financial Independent Network (FiNet).
Pershing, a BNY Mellon Company, is GCS’s global custodian for managed assets. Joseph maintains FINRA Series 7, 63 and 66 licenses.
Debbie Lesko for congress
Congresswoman Debbie Lesko Presents Peoria Resident with Arizona’s District 8 Congressional Recognition
Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08) presented Dawn Marie Rapaport, Founder of Homeless Engagement Lift Partnership (H.E.L.P.) and Peoria resident, with Arizona’s District 8 Congressional Recognition.
The mission of H.E.L.P. is to restore dignity and hope to those in our homeless community by changing the cycle and to provide immediate aid and comfort for those experiencing homelessness.
“Homelessness is one of the most pressing issues affecting our communities across the country,” said Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08). “That is why H.E.L.P., which serves the Phoenix area, plays a critical role by providing resources for those experiencing homelessness.
Thank you, Dawn Marie, for your work to help improve the lives of Arizona’s most vulnerable community members.”
Political positions
Abortion
Lesko is pro-life. She has proposed legislation to give employers religious exemptions from providing contraceptives in health insurance plans.
She has proposed legislation that would allow health officials to conduct warrantless and unannounced inspections of abortion clinics as they do for all other health institutions in the state, which critics said undermined the privacy of patients at the clinics.
Economy, taxes, and regulation
Lesko has said that she would have voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Republican Party’s 2017 tax overhaul. She favors a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and said that “on the federal level, there has to be a lot of areas where we can cut spending.”
In 2017, Lesko championed legislation that would allow payday lenders to provide loans at interest rates as high as 164% a year (the previous maximum was 36%).
In 2016, she opposed efforts to increase the minimum wage in Arizona to $10 by 2017 and then to $12 by 2020.
Education
Lesko favors empowering private schools and charter schools.
Environment and energy
Asked at a debate involving seven candidates in January 2018 whether she believed that humans contribute to climate change, Lesko did not raise her hand.
After a long pause, she said that the question was “loaded” and added, “Is some of it, maybe, human-caused? Possibly. But certainly not the majority of it. I think it just goes through cycles and it has to do a lot with the sun. So no, I’m not a global warming proponent.”
In 2016, Lesko crafted a measure that would give state utilities in Arizona the right to charge separate rates for customers who produced their own energy through solar panels. Lesko crafted the measure with the assistance of utilities.
Gun control
Lesko opposes changes to existing gun laws, saying “I think there are enough laws. The laws need to be enforced.”
Health care
Lesko has said she opposes “universal health coverage” and favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). She opposed Arizona’s expansion of Medicaid coverage and sued former Arizona governor Jan Brewer after she expanded Medicaid.
Immigration
During her 2018 campaign, Lesko made the construction of a border wall on the Mexico border the centerpiece of her campaign, and she pledged to back the Trump administration’s hardline positions on border security and immigration reform.
LGBT rights
Lesko strongly opposes the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She urged Congress members to vote against the bill.
Arizona’s 8th congressional district
Arizona’s 8th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona. It includes many of the suburbs north and west of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona.
After redistricting for the 2012 general election, the new 8th district encompasses most of the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd district, while most of the former 8th district became the 2nd congressional district.
It is the geographic and demographic successor of the old 2nd; while the 4th district contains most of the old 2nd’s land, more than 92 percent of the old 2nd’s constituents were drawn into the 8th.
This House seat was vacated by Representative Trent Franks on December 8, 2017. A special election was held on April 24, 2018, and won by Republican Debbie Lesko. Arizona picked up an eighth congressional district after the 2000 census. It originally encompassed the extreme southeastern part of the state.
It included all of Cochise County and parts of Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties. For all intents and purposes, it was the successor to the 5th District.
Longtime Republican Jim Kolbe retired in 2007 and was succeeded by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and severely wounded at a public event on January 8, 2011. Giffords resigned her seat in January 2012. A special election that was on June 12, 2012, elected Ron Barber as the new congressman.
For the 2012 election, Barber was redistricted to the 2nd district, which includes the bulk of the old 8th district. The 8th was redrawn to include nearly all of the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd District–as mentioned above, more than 92 percent of the old 2nd’s population.
The district had previously been the 3rd District from 1963 to 2003. That district’s congressman, Republican Trent Franks, won the election for the new 8th.
Debbie Lesko Trump Debbie Lesko Committee
Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08) released the following statement on President Trump’s proposal to secure the border and reopen the government.
“President Trump has offered a common-sense plan that will address the humanitarian and security crisis currently happening at our Southern border plus ensure legal protection for the Dreamers who through no fault of their own were brought here illegally by their parents as a child.
I sincerely hope that the Democrats will now finally come to the negotiating table to end this government shutdown and get federal government employees back to work with pay.”
Debbie Lesko Vs Hiral Tipirneni
Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko says she and her Democratic opponent, Hiral Tipirneni are as different as black and white.
Rep. Debbie Lesko nailed it.
The difference between the two is, in fact, startling – from their outlook on who they represent to their work histories. (Tipirneni spent 10 years as an emergency room doctor, Lesko spent nine years as a state legislator).
One of them has actual ideas to fix some of our most vexing issues and the other? Not. A. Clue.
Did I say their differences were startling? Actually, more like shocking, which possibly explains Tipirneni’s better-than-expected showing in a special election earlier this year to fill the seat vacated by Trent Franks.
Reporters and editors at The Republic recently sat down with the pair to talk issues.
Here then, in their own words, are where they stand on a few of the big ones:
Debbie Lesko Facebook
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