FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A lot of Democrats might have looked at the new configuration of the sprawling House district in northern and eastern Arizona and decided to retire. Not Tom O’Halleran.
President Joe Biden lost the new 2nd District, which includes Navajo Nation, the pine forests here and the traditionally Republican Prescott area, by 8 percentage points back in 2020, so it is no surprise that O’Halleran is among the most vulnerable House incumbents running this year. Biden narrowly carried his old district in 2020.
“I don’t think that way,” O’Halleran said, with a laugh, when asked before the kickoff of what is perhaps Arizona’s most iconic Fourth of July Parade. “Two-thirds of the district are still mine; it takes into account the tribal lands, all of them. That’s … a main source of support for me. It takes into account cities like Flagstaff and Williams and Winslow and other communities around the Verde Valley-Sedona area, and I’m well known throughout the district.”
