Adelita Grijalva wins Democratic primary to succeed her late father in Arizona House district
The Arizona Democrats appointed Adelita Grijalva, daughter of the late representative Raúl Grijalva, to fill her former headquarters during a special election in September, the Associated Press projects.
Grijalva, a former member of the Comté de Pima supervisor, won the Special Democrat primary on Tuesday ahead of Deja Foxx, a 25 -year -old activist, and the former representative of the State Daniel Hernandez.
With more than two thirds of the expected votes counted, Grijalva had 62%support, well in advance on Foxx at 20%.
Grijalva, 54, has accumulated the support of a range of powerful elected democrats, notably Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego and national progressive leaders such as Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT. And the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dn.y.
Grijalva and Foxx both described themselves as progressives, but the cracks emerged during the campaign on the question of generational change. Foxx took a blow to Grijalva during a debate last month, saying that she was not born “on a path” in Congress and has no “Legacy family name”.
Foxx has also won the support of the former vice-president of the National Democratic Committee David Hogg, the leaders we deserve, who aim to support young candidates in democratic primaries this electoral cycle.
Grijalva said in an interview this month that experience should be more age.
“It is frustrating for me to see how the experience is considered a negative,” Grijalva told NBC News, adding: “I am a little surprised that in a democratic primary, in a party that should really work to inform people and not spread disinformation – it was not something that I was ready.”
Addressing supporters on the evening of the elections, Grijalva said that the campaign “did not concern an individual, these were not links on social networks, it was a question of knocking on the doors, face to face with members of the community with real conversations”. She quickly added: “I am so grateful that my father taught us that that’s how we are doing this job.”
Although Grijalva is older than Foxx, at 54, she will always be younger than more than half of her colleagues in the house if they are elected.
Before sitting on the Comté supervisors ‘council, Grijalva was a long -standing member of the Tucson school board and led a non -profit minors’ diversion program.
Raúl Grijalva won 12 mandates representing the congress region before his death in March at the age of 77.
Adelita Grijalva will face the Republican Daniel Boundrez during the special elections of September 23. The district, which includes most of Tucson and the southern state border, is strongly democratic, and the former vice-president Kamala Harris carried it by 22 points in 2024, according to the NBC News Decision Desk.
