(The Center Square) – Arizona is holding Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday to determine the two candidates who will compete to fill the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s congressional seat.
In March, the Democratic congressman died from complications from his cancer treatment. His death left Arizona’s 7th Congressional District without a representative in the House.
After Grijalva’s death, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the dates of the special primary and general elections.
Republicans and Democrats both are holding primaries to see who will face each other in the Sept. 23 general election. Candidates with the highest percentage of votes in their party’s primary will advance. The winning candidates only need a plurality of the votes cast in their primary, not a majority.
The 7th Congressional District has been a longtime Democratic stronghold.
The election won’t determine control of the U.S. House. Currently Democrats have 212 seats in the U.S. House, and Republicans are maintaining a narrow majority with 220 seats. The seat that was held by Grijalva is one of three vacancies.
Five candidates are running in the Democratic primary. Three candidates are competing in the Republican primary.
Democratic candidates
A Change Research poll released June 30 shows three frontrunners:
• Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of Raúl Grijalva. She is leading the Democratic primary race in the poll with support of 43% of respondents.
Adelita Grijalva has served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
According to her campaign website, she has worked at the Pima County Teen Court for over 25 years. She was first elected to public office in 2002, serving on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board.
As a congressional candidate, Adelita Grijalva supports child tax credits, workers’ right to unionization, a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and funding gender affirming care.
• Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old Democratic activist. She placed second in the Change Research poll with 35% of support from respondents.
She is a graduate of Columbia University and worked on former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Foxx has not previously served in office, but has been involved in Democratic politics and activism since her teenage years.
According to her campaign website, she advocates for housing as a human right, adding more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, Medicare for all and expanding a woman’s access to abortion.
• Daniel Hernandez, a former Arizona state representative who served from 2017 to 2023. He co-founded the state House LGBTQ+ caucus. He placed third in the Change Research poll for the Democratic primary, with support from 9% of respondents.
In 2022, Hernandez ran for Arizona’s 6th Congressional District seat but lost the Democratic primary to Kirsten Engel.
Hernandez’s campaign website says he supports gender-affirming care, a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, ending right-to-work policies and passing red flag laws.
The other two candidates are Jose Malvido Jr., who has worked on health care and family services at Chicanos por la Causa, and Patrick Harris Sr., a single father with 43 patents in health care technology. Malvido received support from 3% of the respondents in the Change Research poll. Harris didn’t receive a measurable amount of support, according to a Change Research chart.
Eleven percent of poll respondents reported being undecided.
Republican candidates
The three candidates are:
• Daniel Butierez, a small business owner who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of violating probation while awaiting trial for possession of a gram of marijuana. After he was released from prison, an Arizona court years later ruled he did not commit the probation violation.
He previously ran against Raúl Grijalva in 2024, but lost the election by 72,897 votes.
Citing his campaign website, Butierez backs lowering taxes, securing the border, defending the U.S. Constitution, and helping veterans and homeless people.
• Jorge Rivas. Rivas was born in El Salvador but immigrated to America during the Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s. In Arizona, he operates a Mexican restaurant with his family.
The restaurant owner has been featured alongside President Donald Trump in his commercials and at roundtable meetings, demonstrating Rivas’ support for the Republican president.
Rivas doesn’t explain his policy positions on his campaign website. However, the top four priorities he ranks in terms of importance are public safety, affordable housing, education and workforce development.
• Jimmy Rodriguez, a business owner who has built companies in electronics, construction and government surplus.
He previously tried to run for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in 2020, but withdrew his candidacy.
His website states if he is elected, Rodriguez will donate $154,000 of his $174,000 salary to causes in the 7th Congressional District.
On issues, he supports securing the border, advocating school choice, reducing regulations and protecting illegal immigrants who are farm workers and construction workers.
