Rep. Paul Gosar dodges questions about his health

He's been doing it for more than a decade.

The 67-year-old Republican lawmaker is keeping a low profile as he seeks another term in the House. Gosar has raised relatively little cash and has missed more House votes than his Arizona delegation colleagues. He attends events in his district, although he rarely invites the general public or media.

But lingering questions about Gosar's health are getting harder to ignore as Washington faces a reckoning over the age and ability of the nation’s elected officials.

“If Paul does have some health issues, I think he should trust that the voters would rally around him if he was completely transparent about it,” said former Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Arizona, a House Freedom Caucus founder who served with Gosar in Congress.

Colleague: 'I pray that he's healthy'

As a veteran lawmaker in a safe red seat, Gosar is not under the same political microscope as his swing-district neighbors.

That changed briefly in April, after Gosar delivered a stumbling, swaying speech at a rally for President Donald Trump. Gosar’s head appeared to swivel and he struggled to clearly deliver his remarks.

“I don't know what the issue is, and that's his — I pray that he's healthy. We want him to be healthy,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Arizona, who saw a video of the speech. “But more importantly, he's got a terrible voting record. He's got to work on that.”

Gosar's office denied anything was wrong in an email to The Republic.

“Congressman Gosar is healthy as a horse,” Gosar spokesman Anthony Foti said on June 25. He declined to answer questions about whether Gosar had been tested for Parkinson’s or other neurological conditions.

The classic features of Parkinson’s disease are a tremor, usually in the hands, slowness of movement, rigidity or stiffness and difficulties with walking or balance, said Dr. Ray Dorsey, who co-authored the book “Ending Parkinson's Disease.”

Gosar is dealing with “lingering nerve pain” and has put off surgery for a torn rotator cuff because he’s simply too busy serving his constituents, Foti said.

“Finding time for that is easier said than done when he’s balancing committee hearings, late-night votes, cross-country flights, multiple time zones, constituent meetings, casework, and weekends spent traveling across one of the largest congressional districts in America,” Foti said.

“Most people would struggle to keep up. Congressman Gosar simply calls it another week.”

It was not the first time Gosar brushed off health worries. Since he began serving 15 years ago, Gosar’s swiveling and swaying have become more visible, video clips show,

In 2015, The Republic asked Gosar about spasms in his left hand. At that time, he attributed them to arthritis and two compressed vertebrae in his neck and lower back that caused nerve issues. Gosar also dealt with complications from a hip replacement, he said then, adding that leaning over patients as a dentist took a toll on his body.

A few years later, the congressman's sister, Jennifer Gosar, said she believed her brother's physical and cognitive abilities were declining. The siblings were at odds politically: Jennifer Gosar rejected her brother's views as extreme.

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Virginia, also questioned Gosar's cognition. In his 2022 book about the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Riggleman wrote that Gosar had adopted such fringe right-wing views that he "may have had serious cognitive issues."

Gosar has repeatedly denied that anything is wrong.

In 2020, Gosar said he did not have any neural disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. He said he had two back surgeries and a hip surgery, and may need another hip procedure.

Gosar declined an interview for this story and has avoided questions about his health by keeping the public and the media at arm’s length.

Gosar holds few public events

Voters have had few opportunities to see Gosar in person this summer.

Gosar's most recent in-person town hall was 10 years ago, in June 2016, according to his congressional website. He holds other events in the district, such as a recent roundtable with Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee. However, Gosar did not publicly announce the gathering until after it was over.

"The simple reality is that no Member of Congress works harder than Dr. Gosar. The people of Arizona’s Ninth District know it because they see him every weekend," Foti said.

One of Gosar’s only public appearances before the July 21 primary is a July 6 Lake Havasu City meet-and-greet with Rodney Glassman, the Democrat-turned-Republican running for state attorney general.

The congressman's office also keeps visitors at a distance.

On a recent weekday in June, a Republic reporter was turned away from the congressman’s district office. The bright, glass-walled suite is inside a one-story brick office building on Litchfield Road, steps from the Goodyear Airport.

Visitors must make an appointment ahead of time, according to a sign on the door, which cited “heightened security concerns.”

The reporter requested a meeting via email, waited in a hangar-style parking garage, then knocked on the door and was briefly brought inside, where chairs were arranged on a cowhide rug.“We don't talk to media here,” said Gosar District Director Penny Pew, who wrote the email address for Gosar’s communications director on a pink sticky note.

Pew declined to say whether Gosar was in the district.

“I don't talk to reporters,” Pew said as she ushered the reporter to the door.

Foti declined to say how many public events Gosar held this year. Instead, he attacked The Republic and promoted Gosar’s email newsletter, which has included content from Holocaust deniers.

“Every week, Congressman Gosar publishes a comprehensive newsletter detailing his votes, speeches, district visits, committee work, oversight efforts, and constituent services,” Foti wrote. “More than 175,000 people subscribe to it — roughly three times the circulation of The Arizona Republic — because they prefer facts over narratives.”

Gosar has small campaign war chest

By that metric, Gosar has roughly $1 in his campaign bank account for each person who subscribes to his weekly email.

Gosar had the least cash on hand of any Arizona lawmaker running for reelection to the House, records show. Gosar had $173,000 in the bank at the end of March, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.

For comparison, freshman Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Arizona, reported having more than double the cash that Gosar had on hand in the first quarter of the year. He also represents a solidly red district.

To be sure, Gosar likely does not need much money to win another term. His likely Democratic opponent, Danielle Sterbinsky, has virtually no chance of winning in Arizona’s most conservative district. Arizona’s 9th Congressional District encompasses all of La Paz County, most of Mohave and Yuma counties and the western part of Maricopa County.

Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by more than 2 to 1, according to April voter registration totals. Gosar was reelected with 65% of the vote there in November 2024.

Gosar has worst House voting record in Arizona delegation

Though Foti cast Gosar as a hard-working lawmaker who literally "sleeps on a used pullout couch" in his congressional office in Washington, D.C., Gosar has missed more roll call votes than his Arizona colleagues.

Gosar has the worst lifetime vote record of any Arizonan currently serving in the House, according to GovTrack. He has missed 5.9% of House roll call votes during his tenure: 541 missed roll call votes out of the 9,127 held during his time in Congress.

Foti did not acknowledge data showing Gosar’s missed-vote percentage is more than double the 2.1% median for all representatives serving in this Congress. Instead, he called it "one of the strongest voting records in Congress."

"The Congressman maintains one of the strongest voting records in Congress and continues working every day on behalf of the people who sent him to Washington. Those are measurable facts," Foti said. "Everything else is little more than political gossip dressed up as journalism."

Gosar was the Arizona delegation's third most frequent user of proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, an analysis by The Arizona Republic found.

Allies say they can't keep up with Gosar

Republicans in Gosar’s district came to his defense, saying he works hard in Washington and at home.

“I talk to him about once a week. Paul works tirelessly. He returns home every weekend and travels every mile of his district. The man never slows down. I can’t keep up with him. He does his job and represents his District exceedingly well,” Republican Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said in a written statement.

Dave Morgan, an Arizona GOP donor who has spent time with Gosar in the nation’s capital, echoed that sentiment. In addition to talking shop on immigration policy, the pair discussed Gosar’s passion for exotic turtles, Morgan said.

“I couldn't keep up with him,” Morgan said. “But again, I'm 85 years old, and I guess he certainly can walk faster than I can.”

Some Republicans in the state have been reluctant to discuss Gosar's health. After the call, Morgan texted The Republic about the direction of the interview.

“Please don’t call me again if you are going to just dig for dirt. If you want to do a serious story, that’s another thing,” Morgan wrote.

Others, such as Salmon, are more willing to speak up now, after officials on both sides of the aisle have confronted questions about their age and ability in recent years.

Former Democratic President Joe Biden, 83, was forced off the ballot by his own party two years ago. Gosar used Biden's decline to his political advantage, featuring a clip of the former president falling up the stairs of Air Force One in his 2024 campaign launch video.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, faces a fierce reelection fight against a controversial Democrat in his 40s. She recently disclosed that she has long had an essential tremor, a neurological condition that causes her hands to shake uncontrollably.

At 67 years old, Gosar is seeking another term in a Congress that is getting younger, according to the Pew Research Center. His Baby Boomer generation is no longer the largest age cohort in the House.

Despite his years of service, Gosar's spokesman rejected the "career politician" label. “He’s a dentist who speaks like a real person,” Foti said.

However, Gosar hasn’t been a licensed dentist in seven years. His dental license expired in 2019, according to a state database.