United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2012

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	Primary Date ; August 28, 2012
	Partisan breakdown • Candidates
	Arizona District Pages District 1 • District 2 • District 3 • District 4 • District 5 • District 6 • District 7• District 8 • District 9
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	2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Arizona took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected nine candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
May 30, 2012	August 28, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Arizona's primary system is considered semi-closed. Unaffiliated voters may choose which party's primary they will vote in, but voters registered with a party can only vote in that party's primary.^[1]

Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by July 30. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9.^[2]

See also: Arizona elections, 2012

According to the New York Times race ratings in October 2012, three of the nine districts were considered to be in play. Those were the 1st, 2nd and 9th districts.^[3]

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that Democrats would win one district while Republicans would win four seats. It did not make a projection for the remaining four districts.^[4]

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Arizona had the 10th most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 83.33% of major party primaries having been contested (15 out of 18). The national average was 54.31%.

Seven U.S. House incumbents sought re-election in Arizona in 2012. All of those seven (100%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held five of the eight Congressional seats from Arizona. However, the state gained one seat after the 2010 census and elected nine representatives.

Members of the U.S. House from Arizona -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	3	5
	Republican Party	5	4
Total		8	9

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the eight congressional districts were:

Name	Party	District
Benjamin Quayle	Republican	3
David Schweikert	Republican	5
Ed Pastor	Democratic	4
Jeff Flake	Republican	6
Paul Gosar	Republican	1
Raul Grijalva	Democratic	7
Ron Barber	Democratic	8
Trent Franks	Republican	2

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 9 seats up for election in 2012 in Arizona. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Arizona, District 1	Ann Kirkpatrick	3.6%	251,595	Jonathon Paton
Arizona, District 2	Ron Barber	0.8%	292,279	Martha McSally
Arizona, District 3	Raul Grijalva	21.2%	168,698	Gabriela Saucedo Mercer
Arizona, District 4	Paul Gosar	38.5%	243,760	Johnnie Robinson
Arizona, District 5	Matt Salmon	34.4%	273,059	Spencer Morgan
Arizona, District 6	David Schweikert	28%	293,177	Matt Jette
Arizona, District 7	Ed Pastor	63.5%	127,827	Joe Cobb
Arizona, District 8	Trent Franks	28.3%	272,791	Gene Scharer
Arizona, District 9	Kyrsten Sinema	4.1%	250,141	Vernon B. Parker

FairVote Democracy Study

This is a map of the congressional districts of Arizona before and after the 2010 redistricting. The image also includes the partisan breakdown of the districts that are close in registration figures.

See also: FairVote's "Dubious Democracy" report about United States House of Representatives elections

FairVote, formerly the Center for Voting and Democracy, published a study of representative democracy in U.S. House elections. The analysis, "Dubious Democracy," compiles voting data to assess "the level of competition and the accuracy of representation in House elections in all 50 states."^[5] The study attempts to highlight a lack of real options in most elections, as well as a mismatch between voter preferences and the politicians who represent them.^[5]

Among the statistics analyzed in the study are the following:

The Democracy Index is the overall combination of Average Margin of Victory, Landslide Index, Seats-to-Votes Distortion, and Representation Index.
The Margin of Victory is the winner's percentage of the vote minus the second-place candidate's.
Voter Turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who voted in a given election.
The Representation Index multiplies voter turnout by the winning candidate's percentage.

Arizona's ratings for 2010 are shown below:

Statistic	Rating	Ranking (1-50)
Democracy Index	23.8	19
Margin of Victory	18.9%	11
Voter Turnout	39.2%	36
Representation	21.9%	44

General election candidates

District	General Election Candidates	Incumbent	2012 Winner	Partisan Switch?
1st	Ann Kirkpatrick Jonathan Paton Kim Allen	Paul Gosar	Ann Kirkpatrick	Yes
2nd	Ron Barber Martha McSally Anthony Powell (Write-in)	Trent Franks	Ron Barber	Yes
3rd	Raul Grijalva Gabriela Saucedo Mercer Blanca Guerra	Benjamin Quayle	Raul Grijalva	Yes
4th	Johnnie Robinson Paul Gosar Joe Pamelia Richard Grayson	Ed Pastor	Paul Gosar	Yes
5th	Morgan Spencer Matt Salmon	David Schweikert	Matt Salmon	No
6th	Matt Jette David Schweikert Jack Anderson Mark Salazar	Jeff Flake	David Schweikert	No
7th	Ed Pastor Joe Cobb	Raul Grijalva	Ed Pastor	No
8th	Gene Scharer Trent Franks Stephen Dolgos	Ron Barber	Trent Franks	Yes
9th	Kyrsten Sinema Vernon Parker Powell Gammill	N/A	Kyrsten Sinema	N/A