a large number of provisional ballots. Barber eventually overtook McSally as more ballots were counted. By November 16, most of the outstanding ballots were in heavily Democratic precincts near Tucson. The Arizona Republic determined that McSally would not be able to pick up enough votes to overcome Barber's lead. By November 17, Barber's lead had grown to 1,400 votes. That day, the Associated Press determined that there were not enough ballots outstanding for McSally to regain the lead and called the race for Barber. She conceded the race later that morning. 2014 election McSally declared her intention of running again for the 2nd district seat in 2014. She won the June 3 primary against two opponents, taking nearly 70% of the vote. In the November 4 general election, the race was too close to call by the end of election night and eventually became the final federal election of the 2014 cycle to be decided. With 100% of the votes counted, McSally had a 161-vote lead and declared victory on November 12, 2014, but because the margin of victory was less than 1%, an automatic recount was called on December 1. On December 17, the official recount declared McSally the winner by 167 votes. She is only the second Republican ever to represent a southern Arizona-based district in the U.S. House of Representatives; the first was Jim Kolbe, who represented what is now the 2nd district, from 1985 to 2007. McSally is also the first female Republican representative from Arizona. 2016 election McSally ran for reelection in 2016, and was unopposed in the Republican primary. She defeated Democratic opponent Matt Heinz by a margin of 57 to 43 percent in the general election. Tenure After she was first elected to the U.S. House, McSally hired C.J. Karamargin, who was formerly the communications director for Democratic U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, as her district director. In her freshman term in Congress, McSally had seven bills approved by the U.S. House. Among all members of the U.S. House, McSally was tied for third as of 2016 in the number of bills she had authored that have made it through the House. Her bills were generally "narrowly drawn proposals to improve homeland security or to help veterans." During her early years in Congress, McSally had a reputation as a political moderate. According to The Arizona Republic, McSally was "one of the most prolific fundraisers