Two Democratic candidates are running for this year's Congressional District 1 seat.
One, Flagstaff attorney Wenona Benally Baldenegro, hopes to make history.
The other, attorney Ann Kirkpatrick, who is also from Flagstaff, hopes history repeats itself.
Benally Baldenegro was born and raised in Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation.
She has a degree in English literature from Arizona State University, studied law at Harvard and received a master of laws degree from the University of Arizona.
She is a strong proponent of protecting Medicare and Social Security, investing in education, supporting small business and maintaining solid intergovernmental relations with the 11 tribes in the district.
If victorious, the 34-year-old public analyst will be the first American Indian woman elected to Congress.
"A lot of folks out there are struggling to make ends meet," Benally Baldenegro said in a phone interview Wednesday. "They want to know there will be someone in Congress who is going to listen to them and work with them."
Kirkpatrick, 62, was born in McNary and raised on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation.
She is an alumna of the UA College of Law and has served in government at both the state and national level, including a congressional term in District 1.
Kirkpatrick was elected to the seat in 2008 but was defeated by the current U.S. representative for the district, Paul Gosar, in 2010.
This time around she's running in a largely reconfigured district thanks to a controversial decennial redistricting process.
During her time in office, Kirkpatrick voted for the 2009 economic stimulus package, as well as the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Like Benally Baldenegro, she supports funding higher education, sustaining Medicare and Social Security and strengthening business development, particularly along the Interstate 10 corridor.
"People are frustrated with partisan gridlock," Kirkpatrick said. "During my last term in office, we were actually making progress to get things done."
Both Kirkpatrick and Benally Baldenegro say job growth in the mostly rural District 1, which runs from northern Pima County up the east end of the state to the Utah border, is the biggest concern for voters.
Benally Baldenegro said she would work toward receiving funds from the recently enacted surface transportation bill, otherwise known as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, as a way to create jobs.
The bill, among other things, provides continued financial support for infrastructure improvement projects on highways, roads and bridges.
"We have such an aging infrastructure," she said. "If we could get those dollars into the local economy, we would be able to help put people back to work right away."
Kirkpatrick's jobs plan revolves around creating a diversified economy that isn't dependent on any one sector.
She envisions bringing more new and emerging technology industries - such as biotech, wind and solar energy - to the district.
She also wants jobs created by what she calls "federal action, not federal dollars" and cites the Four Forest Restoration Initiative that she helped broker while in Congress as an example.
The initiative thins out trees in the Apache-Sitgreaves, Kaibab, Coconino, and Apache national forests to restore fire-adapted ecosystems.
"That creates jobs, but it also protects our forests from the horrific wildfires that we've had in the past," Kirkpatrick said.
Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at ggay@azstarnet.com or 807-8430.
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