By Hank Stephenson | Arizona Capitol Times
Just before announcing that she would be leaving Congress to run for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick called her friend K.C. Clark, the Navajo County sheriff, to ask him if he were interested in running for her seat in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District in 2016.
Clark, a veteran cop who was elected sheriff in 2009, was honored to be considered and promised Kirkpatrick he would think it over.
That’s when the phone calls started.
Among the people calling to urge him to run for the office were officials from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including the committee’s recruitment chairman, U.S. Rep. Denny Heck of Washington state, and former chair, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of New York.