Matthew G. Heinz (born June 6, 1977) is an American doctor and politician. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

, he was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in June 2013 as Director of Provider Outreach in the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs, a part of the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Im ...

. Heinz was tasked with helping Secretary

Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of health and human services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumenta ...

with the roll-out of the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

, with one aspect of his job to work with

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

organizations across the country as they inform their members of their options in each state. For one or two weekends per month, Heinz continued his work as a hospitalist in Tucson, Arizona. Heinz left the position in March 2015. Prior to his appointment, Heinz was a member of the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Arizona Senate, Senate. The House convenes in the le ...

from the 29th District. First elected in 2008, he took office on January 12, 2009, won re-election to his seat in 2010 and toward the end of his second term, he ran as a candidate for US Congress. In 2020 he won the

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 List of counties in Arizona, counties in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1 ...

Supervisor seat from 2nd district.

Personal life, education, and medical career

Heinz earned a BA in Chemistry from

Albion College Albion College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students as of Fall 2021 ...

and has an MD from

Wayne State University School of Medicine The Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) is the medical school of Wayne State University, a public university, public research university in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,500 students in undergraduate medical ed ...

. In 2000, he was granted a fellowship in vascular surgery at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, where he conducted research. He completed his

residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

in internal medicine at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and is a practicing physician at

Tucson Medical Center Tucson Medical Center (TMC), is a locally governed nonprofit regional hospital in Tucson, Arizona. The medical center is a part of healthcare network TMC Health, the forth largest healthcare network in Arizona with four affiliated hospitals, 523 ...

. He is of Lebanese and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

descent. Heinz is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

and his campaign for the Arizona state legislature won the support of the

Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund LGBTQ+ Victory Fund (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and LGBTQ Victory Fund), commonly shortened to Victory Fund, is an American political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of out LGBTQ+ public officials in the United ...

Arizona House of Representatives

Elections

The 29th District, entirely located in

, includes parts of Tucson and Littletown. It is reliably Democratic. ;2006 He ran for Arizona's 28th House District. He lost the Democratic primary, getting 23% of the vote. Steve Farley ranked first with 33%. Incumbent State Representative David T. Bradley ranked second with 33%. ;2008 He then ran for Arizona's 29th House District.

Term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

s prevented incumbent Democratic State Representative Linda Lopez from running for re-election in 2008. Heinz was one of seven Democrats to file for the two house seats. In the primary election, he ranked first with 25% of the vote. Incumbent State Representative Tom Prezelski came in third with 16% and lost his seat, behind Heinz and second-placed finisher Daniel Patterson. In the general election, Patterson ranked first 33% and Heinz ranked second with 32%. ;2010 He won re-election 35% of the vote, ranking second to Patterson again, who got 37% of the vote.

Committee assignments

*House Appropriations Committee *House Public Employees, Retirement and Entitlement Reform Committee

U.S. House campaigns

2012

Following the resignation of incumbent Democratic U.S. Congresswoman

Gabby Giffords Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun violence prevention advocate. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when ...

, Heinz announced his candidacy for the special election for the seat. He later withdrew from the race before the election.

2016

Heinz announced in 2015 that he would run for the 2016 Democratic nomination in Arizona's 2nd congressional district. In August 2016, Heinz won the primary with 53.2 percent of the vote, defeating Victoria Steele. In the general election, he faced Republican incumbent

Martha McSally Martha Elizabeth McSally (born March 22, 1966) is an American politician and former military pilot who represented Arizona in both chambers of Congress between 2015 and 2020. She is to date the last Republican to serve Arizona in the U.S. Senate ...

. McSally was re-elected with 57% of the vote.

2018

Heinz announced in 2017 that he would again run for the 2018 Democratic nomination in Arizona's 2nd congressional district. In August 2018, Heinz lost the 7-way primary with 29.6 percent of the vote to

Ann Kirkpatrick Ann Leila Kirkpatrick (born March 24, 1950) is an American politician and retired attorney who served as the U.S. representative for from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented from 2009 to 2011, and again from 2013 ...

who received 41.9 percent.

References

External links

Legislative homepage

Heinz for Arizona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heinz, Matt Politicians from Tucson, Arizona Democratic Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives LGBTQ state legislators in Arizona American gay politicians Albion College alumni Wayne State University alumni Harvard Medical School people University of Arizona alumni 1977 births Living people Gay Christians LGBTQ people from Michigan Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections 21st-century members of the Arizona State Legislature