In this episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, we kick it off with Congressman Juan Ciscomani of Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, who gives us the latest developments regarding the Trump assassination task force, the most recent job reports released, and his bipartisan affordable housing bill in Congress. Following this, Joe Bishop-Henchman from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation will discuss the impact of tariffs on the economy, the recent Chevron decision on businesses, and Biden’s outrageous White House payroll. Finally, Alexander Raiken from the Ethics and Public Policy Center presents his analysis on how Donald Trump does not pose a threat to democracy. Tune in for an in-depth exploration of these pivotal issues shaping the political landscape.
About our guests:
Congressman Juan Ciscomani represents Arizona’s 6th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Juan and his family immigrated to the United States when he was a young boy. They established roots in Tucson, Arizona, where his father worked as a bus driver to give his children a shot at the American Dream. Growing up in a working class family taught Juan the value of hard work and the importance of a can-do attitude.
Juan attended public schools in Tucson, Pima Community College and the University of Arizona. He worked his way through school with maintenance and service jobs until becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. After college, Juan worked for the University of Arizona and the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce before joining Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s administration as Senior Advisor and Vice-Chair of the Arizona-Mexico Commission. Juan focused on the issues of international trade and diplomacy, border security, and economic development.
In 2022, Juan was elected to represent Arizona’s new 6th congressional district, becoming the first naturalized American citizen from Mexico elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona history.
In 2024, Juan was named the most bipartisan member from Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives by the Lugar Center and McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University Bipartisan Index.
Juan often shares a conversation with his dad where his dad asked him:
“Where else could we have our story? We come to the US, learn English, immerse in the culture, become US citizens, I drive a bus most of my life, and now my son is a United States Congressman. Where else in the world? Nowhere else, that’s the American Dream.”
Juan is determined to fight to keep that dream alive for others. Juan resides in Tucson with his wife, Laura, and their 6 kids — Zoe, Juan David, Kenny, Lily, Lucas, and Gloria.
Joe Bishop‐Henchman is Executive Vice President at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, leading our work to protect taxpayer rights through research, litigation, and outreach. He has worked with elected officials and stakeholders to achieve major state‐level tax changes, advised on the interplay between federal and state policy changes, and authored over 100 studies on tax policy and tax law. Bishop‐Henchman is a class plaintiff in a major lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service seeking refund of $300 million of illegally collected fees, was lead counsel in NTUF’s Halstead Bead litigation that successfully prompted reform of Louisiana’s complex local sales tax practices, and his brief in South Dakota v. Wayfair was cited twice by the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion.
Bishop-Henchman joined NTUF from the McDermott Will & Emery law firm, where he counseled clients on tax policy and compliance, and prior to that, 14 years at the Tax Foundation, where he co-authored 8 books on tax policy. He has testified to Congress seven times, in 36 state houses around the country, and on anti-corruption tax reform efforts in-person in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2023. He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley and received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and a certificate in International Legal Studies from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge and the University of Salzburg. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court, and the 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, and D.C. Circuits.
Alexander Raikin is a friend on the show. He is a Visiting Fellow in Bioethics and American Democracy Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His research focuses on the dignity of human life and end-of-life issues, especially on its impact on the field of medicine and broader ethical questions of social belonging.
His writing has been widely cited in major publications such as The Atlantic and the New York Times and in academic journals in the United States, Canada, UK, and France. He wrote cover stories for National Review and The New Atlantis, while his other bylines include City Journal, Plough, and the Washington Free Beacon. Raikin frequently speaks on national radio and on major podcasts.
Last year, Raikin was an inaugural Richard John Neuhaus Fellow at the Public Interest Fellowship and EPPC. He was a Tikvah Summer Fellow and a Killam scholar with Fulbright at American University. He graduated from Carleton University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy. Raikin is a proud member of Kesher Israel synagogue and lives with his wife in Washington, D.C.
