WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, an Arizona emergency
room physician and cancer research advocate making her first bid for public
office, savored victory in the Democratic primary in the state’s 8th
Congressional District, besting Brianna Westbrook. Tipirneni will now vie for
the vacant seat against Republican former state senator Debbie Lesko in a
special election on April 24.
Tipirneni defeated Westbrook by 59.6 percent to 40.4 percent
or 21,703-14,701 votes. Westbrook, a transgender woman, got involved in
politics after pressing for a policy in Arizona that would protect the LGBTQ
community from discrimination.
Lesko, victor in the GOP primary, beat her closest
challenger Phil Lovas by 35.8 percent to 23.9 percent, or 25,508-17,031 votes.
Immediately after the Associated Press called the Democratic
contest in favor of Tipirneni at 8:30 p.m., the elated candidate told ABC15,
“The celebration is tonight. The hard work starts again tomorrow, and we are
going full steam ahead.”
Then in an interview with the Arizona Republic, she
declared, “I think we won because our message was really connecting with
voters, resonating. I think they are looking for someone who brings something
like my skill set to the table, somebody who is ready to work with people from
all backgrounds and really focus on solving the problems at hand.”
She is seen as facing an uphill battle against Lesko, who
beat 11 challengers in the GOP primary in a district that is more than 85
percent white and conservative. The district had been the preserve of
conservative right-wing Republican Trent Franks, who served in the House of
Representatives since 2003, but resigned in December in the wake of sexual
misconduct allegations.
Tipirneni, however, exuded confidence and said she believed
she could compete despite the district being a GOP stronghold.
“These are folks that are really looking to make some
forward progress. They are tired of divisiveness, they’re tired of the rancor,
they’re tired of the obstructionism, and they’re looking for folks who are
really focused on solving some problems and getting down to business,” she
said.
Arizona Democratic Party chair Felecia Rotellini, congratulated
Tipirneni. “She ran an incredible campaign focused on improving the lives of
Arizonians in the Eighth Congressional District by offering real solutions for
them,” Rotellini said in a statement. “This is in direct contrast to the chaos
Arizonians have seen on their television screens by the Arizona Republican
Party.”
Lesko, however, seemed to dismiss Tipirneni as a serious
challenger. “It’s a Republican district for the most part and good patriotic
people that believe in good values, fiscal conservatism and I share their
values,” she said.
Announcing her candidacy last August, Tipirneni declared
"I'm not a career politician... But I've successfully worked with people
from all walks of life, and I promise to bring that team-oriented approach to working
with Republicans and Democrats alike to get the results we need.”
She has served the Phoenix area for more than two decades,
first as an emergency room physician and most recently, as a member of the
board of directors of the Maricopa Health Foundation, which supports the
county’s public health care delivery system.
Tipirneni was 3 when she immigrated to the U.S. with her
family, who first settled in blue-collar suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
Many of her interviews, statements and posts on the internet
provide a background to her life in the U.S. and her decision to run. She
recalls how her immigrant family struggled at first, but her father had
eventually secured a job in his field of structural engineering in Ohio. Her
mother, a social worker, was the director of a downtown Cleveland senior center
and initiated its Meals on Wheels program. Tipirneni says she often accompanied
her mother, and it was then she began to feel the tremendous impact small acts
of service can have on another person.
She said her decision to become a physician stems from a
childhood illness that ultimately inspired her to learn more about medicine.
She earned her medical degree through an accelerated, competitive program at
Northeast Ohio Medical University. She chose the specialty of emergency
medicine because of the wide variety of challenges it presented and also
because it allowed her to be patients’ first point of contact.
She and her husband Dr. Kishore Tipirneni met during her
first year of medical school. After a stint as chief resident of the University
of Michigan’s Emergency Medicine program, they had “looked for a place they
could settle down, practice medicine, and begin raising a family—and somewhere
that reflected the Midwestern values they both learned growing up.”
Their choice was Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix.
Tipirneni’s passion for cancer research had been catalyzed
by the loss of her mother and nephew to cancer. She now leads teams of researchers,
clinicians, and patient advocates in the fight to treat and cure breast cancer,
prostate cancer, and childhood leukemia.
A month after she declared her candidacy, she was in
Washington, D.C., visiting with Democratic National Committee officials,
campaign consultants and potential funders and also longtime activists like
Shekar Narasimhan, founder and chairman of the Asian American and Pacific
Islander Victory Fund, which endorsed her.
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