Contact Information
Candidate Background
Candidacy
Undergraduate education: Arizona State University
Graduate education: Arizona State University
David Schweikert was born in Los Angeles and now resides in Fountain Hills, Ariz. Schweikert earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Arizona State University.
Schweikert began going on trips abroad every year starting in 1994. The first was to Calcutta, India.
"I hadn't even traveled to Nogales, so I picked the place on Earth that scared me the most," he said. "I went with a return ticket a month later, a backpack and a Lonely Planet guidebook."
Schweikert said the trip brought home to him how well Americans live and how lucky they are. He has also traveled to Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam and Serbia.
He and his wife, Joyce, run their own financial consulting business, Sheridan Equities.
Profile
David Schweikert is running as a fiscal conservative, pledging to use his experience as a county treasurer, state lawmaker and tax board member to "return fiscal sanity" to Washington. He pledges to limit the growth and size of government, end earmarking, and not to support deficit spending.
Schweikert wants to make all existing tax cuts permanent, cut capital gains taxes, end the alternative minimum tax and eliminate the estate tax.
He supports Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration and pledges to secure the border with Mexico. He promises not to vote for amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Schweikert opposes the health care reform bill, opposes abortion, supports gun rights and wants to open the outer continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling to help the country meet energy independence targets.
Schweikert was elected to the state House in 1989 and served until 1994, when he ran for the 5th District seat. He lost to Republican J.D. Hayworth in the primary, and began working at the Maricopa County Treasurer's Office. He then ran for Maricopa County treasurer in 2004 and won and served until 2007, when he left the office to again run for the 5th District seat.
He narrowly won the Republican primary with 29.5 percent of the vote but lost to incumbent Harry Mitchell in the general election.
He was credited as treasurer with maintaining solid county finances when other counties were enduring financial stress. He instituted financial transparency measures, including putting his home phone number on the treasurer's website.
Schweikert said he is most passionate about "fiscal sanity," and that he would bring financial know-how to the 5th District.
"My talent is numbers," he said.
Campaigns
David Schweikert won the 2010 Republican primary election. He will take on incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell in the November 2010 general election.
He narrowly won the 2008 Republican primary for the 5th District seat, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting off the five other candidates. He challenged Mitchell, a one-term Democratic incumbent, in the general election and lost by 10 percentage points.
(Last updated by Bob Christie on September 14, 2010.)
