Arizona freshmen Shah, Mendoza and Lamb eye costs, border and Trump

Key Points:

• JoAnna Mendoza, Amish Shah and Mark Lamb took part in freshman orientation at the U.S. House of Representatives

• Members of Congress are adjusting to the dynamics of a new Democratic majority and Republican minority

• More than a quarter of the House will be new faces after a midterm where voters chose change at the federal level

WASHINGTON – Arizona’s three newest members of Congress arrived at the Capitol for freshman orientation Monday eager to deliver on their promises to voters.

Democrats JoAnna Mendoza and Amish Shah, who flipped GOP-held seats, and Republican Mark Lamb, who’ll replace gubernatorial runner-up Rep. Andy Biggs, are part of the largest House freshman class in decades.

Between closed-door orientation sessions on such topics as how to set up a congressional office, the three spoke with Cronkite News about their approaches to affordability and oversight of the executive branch, and their hopes for committee assignments.

When the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, at least 109 House members will be newcomers. That’s more than a quarter of the 435-member House.

Democrats will vastly outnumber Republicans after voters handed President Donald Trump and his party a stinging rebuke. Democrats attributed the result to high gas prices, corruption, executive overreach and Trump’s immigration and tariff policies.

As Arizona’s members get acquainted with Washington, they are each preparing for the opportunities of the 120th Congress with their own policy goals.

JoAnna Mendoza 

Mendoza is the first female Marine elected to the House. She said she hopes to land a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, calling the Iran war a “huge concern.”

She ousted two-term Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Tucson, by about 28,500 votes in a district that includes Tucson and the southeast section of the Arizona-Mexico border.

She’s also interested in the Homeland Security Committee.

“In the military, you don’t ask people if they’re Republicans, independents or Democrats,” she said. “What you do is you build relationships, you earn trust, and then you accomplish the mission, and that’s exactly what I plan to do here.”

Like other Democrats, she said she intends to focus on affordability through reversing Medicaid cuts, a problem she heard about from many of her soon-to-be constituents.

The cuts under Trump, she said, are “going to be so devastating.”

Democrats also promised accountability and oversight in the midterms. Mendoza emphasized issues with tangible impact on her district, including healthcare, job security and cost of living.

“There’s going to be plenty of time for oversight and accountability,” she said. “But I think we can do both because people really need us to.”

Amish Shah 

Shah, an emergency room physician and former state House member, defeated Trump-backed Jay Feely by just under 25,000 votes.

“Core function in medicine is to care for people,” he said. “We have to care for those people back at home in our district. Make sure we deliver.”

He’ll replace Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, who gave up his seat to run for governor. Biggs defeated him in the GOP primary.

The district includes northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley and had been trending more purple. Schweikert carried it by less than 4 percentage points two years ago.

Shah said he met with Schweikert after winning the seat.

“He was gracious, he was kind,” Shah said. “We’ve got to do the best we can for the constituents.”

Apart from the usual Democratic emphasis on affordability and healthcare, Shah also cited water policy. He campaigned in part on working across party lines but said that doesn’t mean shying from tough oversight of the Trump administration.

“Corruption is directly tied to cost-of-living increases and all the other issues that we’re facing back at home,” he said, referring to the Iran war, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill tax overhaul, and the tariffs the president has slapped on major trading partners.

“Those things are going to be a focus for us to try to move costs in the right direction for the people,” he said.

As for a third impeachment of Trump, as some in the party’s progressive wing are demanding,  Shah said: “We’ll see.”

“Impeachment is in the Constitution as a remedy, put in there by the founding fathers for high crimes, misdemeanors and egregious actions, and that is the law, and we will follow the law,” Shah said. “ It’s our constitutional duty.”

Mark Lamb

Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, put border security at the top of his list and said the fact he’ll be in the minority won’t change his priorities.

He narrowly won the 5th District with 51.7% of votes – a big drop from Biggs’ 60% tally in 2024.

“The border still needs to be fixed long term. That’s not an issue that has solidified,” he said before Monday morning’s orientation outside the Capitol Visitor Center auditorium. “While we’re doing great with it, I think a lot of Americans forgot how bad it could be – and it was – and we need to get back to fixing it again.”

A longtime Trump supporter, Lamb campaigned on closer cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, though he also offered an implicit critique of Trump administration policy, calling for prioritizing people who have committed crimes while in the country illegally.

He said he wants to “pare down big-government,” make life more affordable by cutting taxes – unlikely with Democrats in control – finding ways to lower energy costs and “getting inflation under control.”

The $40.5 trillion national debt puts the U.S. economy on a “collision course,” he said.

GOP leaders haven’t yet made committee assignments.

Lamb said he believes his background would serve him well on Homeland Security or Judiciary.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.