Democrat Adelita Grijalva has won the special election to succeed her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, in Arizona’s 7th District, becoming the first Latina elected to Congress from the Grand Canyon State.
A former Pima County supervisor, the younger Grijalva was leading Republican small-business owner Daniel Butierez 71 percent to 28 percent, when The Associated Press called the race shortly after 11 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
Grijalva’s victory doesn’t change the partisan balance in the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority with 219 seats. Democrats will hold 214 seats once the congresswoman-elect is sworn in, and there are two remaining vacancies. Grijalva, though, could provide the vital 218th signature on a discharge petition to bring legislation to the floor calling for the disclosure of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Grijalva’s father was serving his 12th House term when he died in March from complications related to his lung cancer treatment. Adelita Grijalva easily won the Democratic nomination in July, besting a five-candidate field with nearly 62 percent of the vote. She then entered the special general election as the heavy favorite in the deep-blue district, which stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border and extends into Tucson and the Phoenix area.
Like her father, Grijalva, 54, also served on the Tucson public school board and as a county supervisor before her election to Congress. In an interview with CQ Roll Call in late August, Grijalva recalled her father always encouraging her to follow in his footsteps – even when she wasn’t interested herself.
“My dad wanted me to run for office when I was 18. I’m like, ‘I’m going to college. I don’t want to do any of that,’” she said with a laugh.
After graduating from the University of Arizona in 1995 with a degree in political science, she won a seat on the Tucson school board in 2002 and served for nearly 20 years. Over her tenure, she also worked at Pima Prevention Partnership, a nonprofit where she created a diversion program for teenagers at risk of being suspended or expelled from school.
She won election in 2020 to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where she served until resigning earlier this year to run for her father’s seat.
While Arizona has elected several Latino men to represent the state in Washington, including current Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego and Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, Grijalva is the state’s first Latina elected to Congress.
“It is a huge honor and a huge responsibility,” she told The 19th. “I want people to see me in these positions and say, ‘If she can do it, I can do it and push for change in their own communities,’”
In Congress, Grijalva hopes to land seats on the same committees her father served on.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be a huge shock that I want to be on Education and Workforce and Natural Resources,” she said. (The late congressman served as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources for a decade until this January.)
Grijalva is a staunch progressive, also like her father, a longtime co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She has harshly criticized the policies of President Donald Trump, particularly the impacts of an increasing number of immigration raids in the border district.
Grijalva hopes to make education a top priority in Congress, especially as it affects immigrants and their families. She pointed to the impact on local school boards of cuts to federal immigrant and refugee funding amid efforts by the Trump administration to dramatically downsize the Education Department and freeze or redirect federal education funds that run counter to the president’s agenda.
Grijalva said it was important for Democrats to communicate that education cuts not only harm students but could also have wider downstream effects, such as leading to future shortages of doctors or other professionals.
“We have to make sure that we explain that broadly enough – that even if your child is not in a traditional public school system, that the impacts are going to hurt you,” she said.
Grijalva’s victory brings the total number of House vacancies to two. Texas’ 18th District has been vacant since the March death of Democrat Sylvester Turner, with a special election scheduled for Nov. 4.
The special primary election to succeed Republican former Rep. Mark E. Green in Tennessee’s 7th District takes place on Oct. 7, with the general election set for Dec. 2. Green resigned his seat in July for a private sector opportunity.
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