Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu makes Congressional run official

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu officially announced his candidacy Wednesday for the United States House of Representatives, District 4.

"As a first responder, I'm trained to run toward dangers that others run away from. Right now, the biggest threats facing our country are from Washington,” Babeu said.

He called the nation’s debt and deficit spending, “the biggest intergenerational theft in the history of the world.”

The National Sheriff’s Association voted Babeu America's Sheriff of the Year. He reduced the Pinal County Sheriff Office’s budget by 10 percent while decreasing response times to emergencies by 50 percent.

“We have a system that punishes job creators and leaves many millions unemployed,” he said. “We have an unsecured border that allows the drug cartels to operate freely in our country, and results in 400,000 illegal crossings into our state every year.”