CNN
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Tensions within the Democratic Party over age, representation and experience have roiled a special election primary in southwest Arizona, where a young, social media-savvy activist is taking on the daughter of Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.
Former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, 54, has sought to strike a balance between pitching herself as a continuation of her father’s establishment-bucking progressive legacy and embracing the broad support she’s received from Democratic groups and leaders.
Her two top rivals — 25-year-old activist Deja Foxx and 35-year-old former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez — have sought to turn her last name and endorsements into a liability.
“People are hungry for change candidates, they’re tired of legacy last names,” Foxx told CNN earlier this month. “The political establishment is not as strong as the people who make up this party.”
The Tuesday primary has highlighted the ongoing debate over generational change that was further fueled by former President Joe Biden’s late decision to exit the 2024 presidential race following questions about his cognitive ability.
All of the Democratic candidates have vowed to push back on President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law, which narrowly passed while House Democrats had three vacant seats held by lawmakers in their 70s who died this year.
The contest — which includes a familiar rivalry between a seemingly inevitable front-runner and a challenger promising generational change — has also drawn some comparisons to last month’s New York City mayoral primary, where 33-year-old state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won a decisive upset victory against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The comparison isn’t a clean one.
There are no major policy differences between Grijalva and Foxx, who both support progressive policies such as “Medicare for All” and have vowed to push back on Trump’s agenda, particularly on immigration. Grijalva also lacks the political baggage of the former governor, who resigned in disgrace amid a sexual harassment scandal.
“When I started hearing those comparisons, I was like, ‘Am I supposed to be Cuomo in this?’” Grijalva said in an interview with CNN. “That’s just crazy.”
Grijalva has expressed frustration with what she described as a narrative that she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. That discounts her own political record, she said, which includes nearly two decades on the Tucson Unified School District governing board and four years as a county supervisor, both positions her father held before her.
“Up until the last, what, month and a half, the words ‘Grijalva’ and ‘establishment’ have never been used in the same sentence, ever,” she said. “Unless it’s ‘Grijalva fights against the establishment.’”
The question now is whether voters in the district, who sent former Rep. Grijalva to Congress for more than two decades, want to continue the tradition or shake things up. Whoever wins the Tuesday Democratic primary will be heavily favored to win the September 23 general election.
“If you opened your political science book from 2002, it would have told you that the name ID of Grijalva was enough to carry the race,” said Stacy Pearson, a Phoenix-based Democratic strategist. “It’s just not the case anymore.”
Pearson described the race as a jump ball between the three leading candidates, depending on who casts a ballot in what’s expected to be a low-turnout election in a district that includes parts of Tucson and nearly all of Arizona’s border with Mexico.
“It’s going to be such a strange turnout model, and the level of frustration with the status quo is so high that this environment might be absolutely perfect for an underdog to come in and win it,” she said.
The three candidates have been making their case on the airwaves. As of Friday, Grijalva and her allies spent $754,000 on TV ads, while Foxx spent $614,000 and Hernandez spent $509,000, according to AdImpact.
Hernandez, a former school board member who spent six years in the state Legislature under Republican majorities, has embraced a more centrist lane, particularly when it comes to health care and mining.
He has brushed off efforts to label him a moderate, however, and criticized Democrats who he said use being in the political minority as an excuse for not passing legislation.
“I think that’s the thing that people have said: ‘Well, you work with folks on the other side of the aisle,’” he told CNN in an interview. “Well, when you’re in the minority in the state Legislature, you don’t have any options.”
Grijalva’s ads have emphasized her progressive platform, her endorsements from key figures — including both of Arizona’s US senators and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — and her family.
“When you grow up Grijalva, you learn how to fight and who you’re fighting for,” she says in one ad that features images and clips of her father and other relatives. “I know how to fight and win because I learned from the best.”
Foxx’s most prominent ally, meanwhile, has been former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, who endorsed her this month. Hogg, 25, announced earlier this year that his group, Leaders We Deserve, plans to spend $20 million boosting young candidates, including in primary challenges against incumbents in safe Democratic seats that he deems “ineffective.”
The support from Hogg, who campaigned with Foxx in Tucson on Friday, only further fueled the comparisons to the New York City mayoral race, where Leaders We Deserve endorsed Mamdani. But it also brings to mind another race, last month’s Democratic primary to fill the seat of former Rep. Gerry Connolly, who also died earlier this year. Hogg’s pick, Virginia state Delegate Irene Shin, lost handily to former Connolly staffer James Walkinshaw.
Hogg said in a statement that Foxx brings “unmatched clarity, conviction, and lived experience” to issues facing working families.
Foxx has emphasized her backstory as the daughter of a single mother who relied on programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and Section 8 housing to highlight the urgency she says she would bring to Congress. She has argued that her version of fighting the Trump administration is informed by her decade of experience as an activist. And she’s framed herself as the candidate who would break the status quo, frequently ribbing Grijalva for inheriting her father’s donor list.
Grijalva has pushed back, noting she’s not the lead fundraiser in the race. She said that 93% of her donors had never given money to her family before this race and that her father was not a prolific fundraiser. The former county supervisor criticized some of the Foxx campaign’s social media content that she said was misleading.
“Talk about what you’re going to bring to the table, not disparaging and maligning people who have served this community for decades. I just think that is in really poor taste,” Grijalva said. “There’s a lot of throwing under the bus and a lot of ‘look at me.’”
Grijalva’s allies have also jumped into the race. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which endorsed her, has sought to frame the contest as a fight for representation for the district, which is more than 60% Latino.
“Anyone who sees Arizona’s 7th district as anything other than a fight for Latino representation in America is enabling all those who seek to disenfranchise our community and silence our voices,” California Rep. Linda Sánchez, chairwoman of CHC BOLD PAC, the caucus’s fundraising arm, said in a statement.
A Foxx campaign spokesperson said the insinuation that Foxx is “anything other than capable of representing the people of this district is frankly gross.”
“We are focused on putting forward policies to make their lives better and fighting back against Trump, not dividing our community,” the spokesperson, Andrew Mamo, told CNN.
CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.
