People are a product of their upbringing, and Rep. Ann
Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) is no exception.
“I grew up in a bipartisan household,” Kirkpatrick said,
noting that her mother was a Republican and her father a Democrat. “It made for
lively dinner discussions, but it also instilled in me a real respect for
differing points of view.”
{mosads}Kirkpatrick did not gain an appreciation for opposing views
solely from her parents’ dinner table. She grew up on an Apache reservation in
Arizona’s White Mountains, immersed in Native American culture — although she
is not herself Native American.
“Certainly that [consideration of opposing beliefs] is also
present in Native American culture and communities,” Kirkpatrick said.
She added “that respect for each other, listening to each
other, trying to reach a consensus and finding a solution” forms a large part
of her approach to Congress.
Kirkpatrick’s first language was Apache, and she is learning
Navajo; both are handy to know in a district that is roughly 25 percent Native
American. As a result, she is used to talking to people in their own language
and connecting with them at a cultural level.
“Being able to speak a language … helps you understand the
people,” Kirkpatrick said. “And being able to talk with people in their own
language builds that connection.”
The trickiest tongue that Kirkpatrick knows is also the one
that has arguably been most valuable to her as she has navigated the political
waters of a broadly conservative state: centrism.
Kirkpatrick voted for President Obama’s stimulus bill but
believes that federal spending is a problem. When cap and trade legislation
came before the House in 2009, she broke ranks with the majority of her party
to vote against it, and she opposed the cash-for-clunkers program as well.
She is a supporter of the DREAM Act, but says that any
immigration strategy must deal with “the illegal component, the drug
trafficking, the guns trafficking, the human trafficking across the border.”
Indeed, many of the bills Kirkpatrick introduced during her first term in
Congress focused on reducing violence at the border, a concern for residents of
a congressional district that has more square mileage than the state of
Illinois and is roughly 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The results-first attitude even drove Kirkpatrick to read
the Affordable Care Act in its entirety before she voted on it. She wanted to
allay concerns over issues like a Native American disqualification for
preexisting conditions, allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance
until the age of 26, and the Medicare donut hole.
“It was the right thing for the people in my district,” she
said.
Indeed, her career as an attorney put her in a prime
position to be one of the few who could understand the act’s effects as a
whole. Prior to serving in Congress, Kirkpatrick worked as an attorney for
Flagstaff Medical Center, a regional hospital, for almost 27 years.
Kirkpatrick had two terms in the state House when she first
sought election to Congress in 2008. The scandal-ridden Rep. Rick Renzi
(R-Ariz.) announced he would not seek a fourth term after the federal
government indicted him on corruption charges. She rode the enthusiasm of the
Obama wave to 56 percent of the vote and victory over Republican and anti-tax
activist Sydney Hay. She became only the
third Democrat to represent the district since its inception in 1948, and its
first female representative. If she is able to hold the seat in the 2014
midterm elections, she will become the longest tenured Democrat in the history
of the district.
Like many other freshman Democrats, she was a casualty of
the Tea Party wave of 2010 that wiped out a Democratic majority in the House,
felled by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). She went back to practicing law, doing
work she could do “on [her] kitchen table,” as she put it, and considered
opening up a law office again.
However, redistricting made her old seat much more favorable
territory on which to fight, and Gosar opted to stand for election in the 4th
congressional district rather than face a rematch. She recaptured Arizona’s 1st
congressional district in a close election over Republican Jonathan Paton.
Kirkpatrick has not wasted any time getting back into the
swing of things. She recently cosponsored a bill with Gosar — whom she
magnanimously refers to as “the gentleman who unseated me in 2010” — that would create the largest copper mine in
North America while holding true to her view that federal jobs bills should
consist of action, not spending. The Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and
Conservation Act of 2013 would allow a private company to swap environmentally
sensitive land it owns with mineral rich soil the federal government holds.
Both Kirkpatrick and Gosar had submitted similar bills in
previous Congresses, and according to Kirkpatrick, it wasn’t difficult to work
with her former foe from across the aisle.
“We got started right away,” she said. “I am a centrist. I’m
looking for good ideas, I don’t care what party they come from. Let’s work
together for the good of the American people.”