Prime Highlights
- Adelita Grijalva gains Democratic nomination in Arizona 7th Congressional District special primary.
- The primary also saw a battle between party politicians and dissident young voters.
Key Facts
- Grijalva received roughly 62% of the vote in five-candidate Democratic primary election.
- She will compete against Republican Daniel Butierez on Sept. 23 in the strongly Democratic district.
Key Background
Raúl Grijalva’s daughter Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic primary in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District special election by her near 62% landslide. Her win does more than preserve her father’s political legacy; it establishes her as a responsible and accountable leader to her constituency. Grijalva herself was a member of the school board and a supervisor for Pima County, prior to taking flight off the starting line with the assistance of more than 1,400 volunteers, who went door to door more than 39,000 times.
Her campaign vowed to keep the democratic principles of progress that her father had fought for, i.e., education, health care, and workers’ rights. Grijalva was well-supported by influential Democratic establishment leaders like the Arizona Senators and left-of-center activists like EMILY’s List, green groups, and labor unions. Her progressive principles combined with pragmatic community leadership, and that enabled her to win big blocks of voters.
Another of the other better-known challengers was 25-year-old Gen Z activist Deja Foxx, who ran on a digitally-focused, youth-focused platform of radical progressive revolution. Foxx went national and spoke directly to the young voters themselves, particularly through social media and the internet. As inspiring as she was, she could only muster 20% of the vote, which indicates just how hard it is to translate online excitement and enthusiasm into meat-and-blood votes.
His opponent is also Daniel Hernandez Jr., a past governor’s representative, who was awarded the spot by default for having attended the 2011 Gabrielle Giffords shooting. He also came to his campaign depicted as a moderate centrist but could not match greater name recognition and organizational support.
The election saw the Democratic Party lose its future—between new faces and old guard leadership. While Grijalva’s win is already in a position to offer continuity, Foxx’s resounding performance guarantees increasing pressure from young voters for representative and activist politics. The Democrat-leaning general election held on September 23 will be attributed to the district highly liberal in orientations.