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Rep. Debbie Lesko

Representative for Arizona’s 8th District

pronounced DEH-bee // LESS-koh

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Lesko is the representative for Arizona’s 8th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. She has served since May 7, 2018. Lesko is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.

Lesko is among the Republican legislators who participated in the months-long, multifarious attempted coup following the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after the election, Lesko joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election, based on lies and a preposterous legal argument which the Supreme Court rejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence.) Lesko was also a part of a coordinated campaign by the Trump Administration to pressure the Vice President to exclude some Democratic states from the electoral count rather than follow the Constitution's procedure in which Congress may vote to exclude electors, and other extrajudicial strategies to suppress certified election results. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the insurrection at the Capitol, Lesko voted to reject the state-certified election results of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania (states narrowly won by Democrats), which could have changed the outcome of the election. These legislators have generally changed their story after their vote, claiming it was merely a protest and not intended to change the outcome of the election as they clearly sought prior to the vote. The January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol disrupted Congress’s count of electors that determined the outcome of the presidential election with the goal to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office.
Photo of Rep. Debbie Lesko [R-AZ8]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Lesko is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Lesko has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jul 1, 2022. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Debbie Lesko sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Lesko was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:

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Does 2 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Lesko sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Immigration (25%) Health (16%) Crime and Law Enforcement (14%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Education (9%) Transportation and Public Works (9%) Law (9%) Energy (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Lesko recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Lesko voted Not Voting

Passed 361/69 on Mar 9, 2022.

Lesko voted Nay

Passed 363/70 on Dec 7, 2021.
This is the yearly military spending policy bill, which governs how military and related federal appropriations can be spent under the law. This bill was …

Lesko voted Yea

Passed 294/130 on Nov 30, 2021.
This bill would authorize $400 million in grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial public health departments to update their computer databases of immunization records …

Lesko voted Yea

Passed 315/101 on May 14, 2021.

Lesko voted Yea

Passed 327/85 on Dec 21, 2020.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a major government funding bill, which also included economic stimulus provisions due …

Lesko voted Yea

Lesko voted Nay

Lesko voted Nay

Passed 369/47 on Dec 12, 2018.
See the Congressional Research Service's 122-page summary of the bill. * * * H.R. 2 amends and extends major programs for income support, food and …

Lesko voted Yea

Passed 361/61 on Sep 26, 2018.
H.R. 6157 provides $674.6 billion in total discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The bill provides $606.5 billion …

Lesko voted Nay

Passed 366/52 on Jul 25, 2018.
The House Amendment to S. 1182 extends the National Flood Insurance Program, which is set to expire July 31, 2018, through November 30, 2018. This …

Lesko voted No

Failed 121/301 on Jun 27, 2018.
H.R. 6136 enhances enforcement of existing immigration law, closes immigration enforcement loopholes, ends the catch and release policy, provides $25 billion in funding to secure …

Missed Votes

From May 2018 to Jun 2022, Lesko missed 115 of 2,035 roll call votes, which is 5.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: