Next week’s Democratic primary for an open House seat in southern Arizona appears, on paper, to encapsulate the generational and ideological schisms that have split the party since its sweeping losses in 2024.
The apparent front-runner in the special election is Adelita Grijalva, a 54-year-old former local official with decades of political experience in Tucson, establishment backing and powerful family connections.
She faces four other Democrats in the July 15 primary, including Daniel Hernandez, 35, a former state legislator making an economic pitch to working-class Latino voters, and Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and Gen Z activist who has built her campaign around calls for a fresh political perspective.
But the race for the 7th District, which stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border and extends into Tucson and the Phoenix area, doesn’t fold neatly into the conventional narrative about Democratic divisions between liberals and moderates, young and old, outsider and establishment.
Grijalva is the oldest daughter of former Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, a liberal stalwart who was in his 12th term when he died in March at age 77 after suffering complications from his lung cancer treatment.
The younger Grijalva describes herself as an “unapologetic progressive voice who will stand up and fight back” against the Trump administration. She’s picked up the backing of progressive icons such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, Arizona’s two more moderate Democratic senators.
Grijalva has the support of “the entire movement ecosystem of Arizona, including unions and other groups,” said Matthew Marquez, the Arizona campaigns director for the left-leaning Working Families Party, which has endorsed the former Pima County supervisor.
“She’s committed to building something new and fresh … but also building on the good work that her dad did for so long while he was in Congress,” Marquez added.
Advantage Grijalva
Over his two-plus decades in Congress, Grijalva’s father championed environmental causes, supported immigrant rights and advocated on behalf of indigenous communities over the course of more than two decades in the House. He typically won reelection by double-digit margins.
His daughter’s opponents have sought to paint her as a political “nepo baby” who is relying on her family name to sweep herself into Congress.
Adelita Grijalva enjoys “the kind of advantage that most of us will never have,” Foxx said in an interview. “I mean, really, who inherits a donor list or a legacy last name?”
Foxx has emphasized her roots as the daughter of a single mother who stitched together a series of odd jobs — delivering flowers, working at the post office, providing care to the elderly — to make ends meet.
“Families like mine have been locked out of power,” the former Kamala Harris campaign staffer said. “This seat doesn’t belong to any family or any person. It belongs to the people, and we’re hearing that loud and clear at the doors.”
Grijalva has dismissed claims that she’s trading on her famous name.
“I find it disappointing that we’re talking about career politicians when I was on the school board for 20 years in a volunteer, unpaid position,” she said during a candidate forum last month. “That is frustrating, because I think it’s important that everyone serve on a school board.”
She has sought to balance pride in her father’s legacy with an emphasis on her own accomplishments, according to her campaign spokesperson, Nate Sigal.
“Adelita would be the front-runner in this race, even if her last name wasn’t Grijalva,” Sigal said. “That being said, she is embracing who she is, which is a Grijalva, and she is proud of it.”
Hernandez is making his second bid for the House, as he lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in the neighboring and more competitive 6th District in 2022. The son of a construction worker, Hernandez has leaned heavily on the economy, a strategy he says Democrats must embrace to win over working-class Latinos who have shifted away from the party in recent years.
“People are trying to nationalize … this race when it’s really hyperlocal, and it’s about the cost of living,” said Hernandez, who touts the support of several labor groups. “I’ve had to work really hard to earn everything I have. … Nothing has been handed to me.”
Hernandez was a 21-year-old intern with Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011 when a gunman opened fire at a constituent event outside a Tucson supermarket. Six people were killed, and 13 were injured, including Giffords.
Hernandez was credited with helping to save Giffords’ life, but early in the campaign, his former boss endorsed Grijalva, calling her “the right person to carry on her father’s legacy.”
The ‘Mamdani effect’
Both Foxx and Hernandez have sought to draw parallels between their campaigns and last month’s upset win by Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.
Hernandez said his focus on pocketbook issues echoes Mamdani’s approach.
“From big cities like New York on down, the small towns we’ve been … here in Arizona, people are hungry for a change,” he said last month after an afternoon spent canvassing for votes in 104-degree heat. “The way we have done things just isn’t working for working families. People want to see the Democrats do things differently.”
Foxx won the backing of Leaders We Deserve, a group run by former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg that has frustrated the party establishment by supporting younger challengers running in safe blue seats. The PAC has spent at least $150,000 on digital ads promoting her campaign.
“This has become a race about the old way of doing things and a new generation of leadership,” said Foxx, whose sophisticated use of social media has drawn parallels with Mamdani. “That’s really the frame for this race.”
The Working Families Party helped power Mamdani to victory in New York, and Marquez praised Foxx’s style, noting that voters are seeking “someone who is young and energetic.”
“Deja is definitely as aligned as Adelita is when we talk about values,” he said. “But Adelita has a track record of showing up and having the hard conversations and [fighting] for what’s right.”
Also running in the Democratic primary are activist Jose L. Malvido Jr., who is calling for a higher minimum wage and universal health coverage, and retired businessman Patrick Harris Sr., who is proposing a $1 billion cap on individual wealth through establishing a “greed tax.”
The winner of the Democratic primary will be heavily favored in the Sept. 23 general election for a deep-blue seat that Harris won by 22 points last fall, according to calculations by The Downballot.
Three Republicans are making a bid for the seat: small-business owner Daniel Butierez, restaurant owner Jorge Rivas and businessman Jimmy Rodriguez.
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