PHOENIX — Southern Arizona voters on Tuesday selected Adelita Grijalva to succeed her father, the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a progressive Democrat who represented the state for greater than 20 years in Congress.
She defeated Republican candidate Daniel Butierez within the seventh Congressional District, which hugs virtually your entire size of Arizona’s border with Mexico. The decisive win — early returns confirmed Grijalva with greater than double the variety of votes as her Republican opponent — will make Grijalva the primary Latina to symbolize Arizona in Congress.
The seat was one in all two remaining vacancies in blue districts that Democrats wanted to carry to keep away from shedding extra floor to Republicans within the U.S. Home.
Grijalva thanked voters late Tuesday on social media, saying they made historical past collectively. “Now, let’s get to work.”
Grijalva retired from the Pima County Board of Supervisors and launched her bid for Congress shortly after her father’s loss of life in March. She stated Tuesday he was the inspiration for her time in public service and a unifying determine amongst environmentalists, reproductive and immigrant rights advocates, and LGBTQ+ organizers who have been in search of justice and equality.
“Fifty years later, that motion is alive and effectively in all of us,” she stated in a press release. “This victory belongs to the folks — el pueblo.”
Grijalva will serve the ultimate months of her father’s time period.
Butierez advised The Related Press that he was puzzled by the outcomes due to the bipartisan turnout at his watch social gathering however not bothered as a result of he did not aspire to be a politician. Butierez, who owns a portray firm, misplaced to Raúl Grijalva in 2024. This time round, he campaigned on border safety and addressing homelessness, a problem with which he had private expertise.
Democrats take pleasure in a virtually 2-1 voter registration benefit over Republicans within the largely Hispanic district. A lot of the area has been represented by Democrats since Arizona first grew to become a state in 1912.
Earlier Tuesday, family and friends of Adelita Grijalva gathered at a widely known occasions heart in Tucson to await the outcomes, with music and meals. Audio system addressed the group each in English and Spanish.
Grijalva voiced help for limiting immigration operations, defending well being care and advocating for environmental justice. She stated she would discover methods to assist take energy away from President Donald Trump so he couldn’t unilaterally determine on imposing tariffs.
“There’s a chance for us to attempt to persuade people who who they should symbolize is the people who elected them and their group and never billionaires and firms,” Grijalva advised reporters at her watch social gathering Tuesday evening.
Grijalva’s victory improves Democrats’ probabilities of forcing a vote on making the Justice Division launch case recordsdata on the intercourse trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein, the Democratic Nationwide Committee stated in a press release. Grijalva pledged to signal the petition to power a vote on the recordsdata.
