TUCSON—Southern Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected the Trump MAGA agenda on Tuesday, choosing in a landslide to send Adelita Grijalva to Washington to replace her father, Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died last March. She is the first Chicana elected to Congress from Arizona.
Preliminary results show that she carried over two-thirds of the vote against Republican Daniel Butierez, who garnered 30% fewer votes than the percentage he scored last fall when he was defeated by Raul Grijalva.
Grijalva served four terms on the Tucson Unified School District board before being elected Pima County Supervisor, a position she resigned from to run for Congress.
At an election night celebration, Grijalva promised to join the fight against the Trump administration’s anti-people agenda. “You are sending a fighter to D.C.,” she told the cheering crowd.
Addressing the several hundred supporters gathered in South Tucson’s Casino ballroom, she spoke of the movement her father helped put together a half-century ago uniting labor unions, environmentalists, LGBTQ peoples, and immigrant rights activists in the fight for justice, dignity and equality for all. “And 50 years on,” she added, “that movement is still alive, and this victory belongs to all of us.”
Campaign volunteers knocked on over 50,000 doors and made hundreds of thousands of phone calls during the race. Labor support came from at least 15 unions, along with environmental activists, indigenous leaders, and community organizations. Hers was an unabashedly progressive campaign, with endorsements and support from well-known national leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In the primary, Grijalva enjoyed the support of Arizona Sens. Kelly and Gallego, as well as most of the more moderate Democratic establishment—not because they necessarily agree with her program but because the voters support it. The Grijalva campaign, like other special elections taking place this year, demonstrates that taking a strong stand for public education, affordable health care, and an end to ICE raids are popular issues.
Arizona’s District 7, which Grijalva will represent in Congress, encompasses almost the entire U.S. side of the Arizona-Mexico border, an area whose communities have endured decades of militarization and abuse of immigrants.
Grijalva will be joining the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which her father had chaired for a decade. Her election further erodes the narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
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