Photo: Gage Sizemore
By Aaron Dorman | PinalCentral
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, a polarizing figure who has courted controversy during his 10-plus years in office — most recently with a video showing him in a cartoon killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — announced he would run for reelection in the new Arizona District 9.
Under new maps approved by the Independent Redistricting Commission, that district will no longer include portions of Pinal County including Florence and San Tan Valley.
The district will continue to comprise the western portion of the state, going down the Colorado River. While the portion that extended into Pinal County was removed, the new district gains portions of Yuma and the western Phoenix suburbs.
“I am proud to announce that I will be running for reelection in the new District 9,” Gosar said in a social media statement last week. “I am thrilled to have Mohave, La Paz, Yuma and Maricopa counties. I have to express my sadness, however, in not having Yavapai, Pinal and Gila County in my new district. Over the last 10 years I have made so many friends there.”
Gosar said he would continue to be accessible to constituents “no matter where you live.”
According to FiveThirtyEight, the new District 9 will be 12% less conservative, from an R+45 to an R+33 partisan lean, but as evidenced by those numbers, the district will remain a solidly Republican-favored district.
