In 1992, Coppersmith won the Democratic primary in Arizona's 1st District and faced three-term Republican Jay Rhodes in the general election. On paper, Coppersmith faced extremely long odds. This East Valley-based district had been in Republican hands without interruption since 1953, and the Democrats had only made two serious bids for the seat since then. Rhodes had won the seat with over 70 percent of the vote each time, and no Democrat even filed against him in 1990. It had seemingly become even more Republican when most of its Hispanic residents were shifted to the 2nd District during redistricting. Also, popular Senator John McCain (who had represented the district from 1983 to 1987) was running for re-election.