Adelita Grijalva is a veteran of both Tucson’s school board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She’s also the 54-year-old daughter of the progressive icon Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose death in March kicked off the special election for his U.S. House seat in Arizona that she is now favored to win.
Grijalva has consolidated institutional support from across the party’s ideological spectrum, winning the backing of local Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, national progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), many of the region’s unions, and national organizations like the Working Families Party. She promises to continue her father’s legacy as a progressive willing to buck party leadership.
“When you grow up Grijalva, you learn how to fight and who you’re fighting for,” she declares in one of her ads.
But as the special election approaches on Tuesday, Grijalva has found herself flustered and baffled by attacks from her opponents labeling her the “establishment” pick in the race, and by the traction the attack seems to have gained. It’s helped Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer, move to within striking distance of Grijalva.
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Grijalva is still favored to defeat her opponents ― besides Foxx, 35-year-old former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez is also in the race.
The race shows how Democrats’ burgeoning youth movement may not find all front-runners as flat-footed and ill-suited for the second Trump administration as Andrew Cuomo, the 67-year-old arch-centrist, scandal-tarred former governor of New York. (Grijalva, for instance, has had a scandal-free political career and the backing of many groups that supported up-and-coming democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo in last month’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary.)
But the simple fact that Foxx seems to have made the race too close for comfort, enough to draw extremely imperfect comparisons to the aforementioned battle between Mamdani and Cuomo, also shows charismatic, media-savvy and young candidates are likely to attract attention even when they’re not running in the media capital of the world.
“The fact that Deja is the main challenger here is enough to say the young candidate formula has a lot of appeal to Democratic primary voters right now,” said one Arizona Democratic strategist who backs Grijalva and requested anonymity to speak frankly about the race. “If Foxx pulls off a win, every incumbent over the age of 50 needs to understand they’re in political danger.”
Even more confusing to Grijalva are comparisons between her contest to represent this heavily Democratic, majority-Hispanic district covering much of southern Arizona and last month’s mayoral primary in New York.
“Am I the Cuomo in this situation?” she asked incredulously. “It’s laughable.”
“This whole idea that we need someone new,” she said at another point in the interview, referring to an argument put forward frequently by her two younger opponents in the race. “Well, that’s why people voted for Trump. How are we feeling about that decision right now?”
There was no guarantee Foxx would emerge as the main alternative to Grijalva when the race began. Arizona Democrats initially thought Hernandez, who is running as a more moderate candidate, could benefit from outside groups that have shown a willingness to spend millions backing pro-Israel candidates. But the money never arrived, and Foxx’s social media savvy and debate performances have helped her raise enough money to make the race at least somewhat competitive.
There are few ideological differences between Grijalva and Foxx — both, for instance, support “Medicare for All” and agree the cost of living remains the central issue in the race. But they have deeper disagreements about the best way to fight President Donald Trump’s policies and how to succeed as a member of Congress in the 2020s.
“The role and the job of a member of Congress has changed under this administration,” Foxx said in an interview, pointing to members who have been arrested protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Who do you trust to stand between Donald Trump and your fundamental rights?”
With most other prominent progressives backing Grijalva, Foxx’s most prominent national ally has been David Hogg, the Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor who now runs Leaders We Deserve, which backs young candidates for office. Foxx, who grew up reliant on food stamps and Medicaid, regularly makes generational change an explicit part of her pitch.
“This is a preview of the future of politics, and it is a test for the Democratic Party about if they’re going to meet this moment or not,” Foxx said. “We can’t afford to cede a single seat, even these safer seats, to people who are just going to check the boxes. We need champions.”
Grijalva has a more traditional view of coalition-building and suggests Foxx’s style of politics is more about promoting herself than making progress.
“It’s not about getting attention for yourself,” she said of holding elected office. “It’s about making sure decisions are made in collaboration with your community. And that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.”
At times, Grijalva sounds like a disappointed mentor when talking about the younger candidate, whom she remembers encouraging when Foxx first started in activism as a teenager, speaking in front of a school board Grijalva herself was a member of.
“It’s really been disappointing in this election that it has come down more to personality attacks versus talk about our policies,” Grijalva said.
Hernandez is now largely seen as the third man in a two-person race. And while he bristled at being labeled a moderate, noting his past work for gun control and abortion rights, his campaign does show how progressives aren’t the only candidates who can argue for generational change.
“We are having ‘No Kings’ rallies,” Hernandez said in an interview. “So why would we decide that we’re going to have a situation where the race is decided as if it’s a hereditary thing?”