(The Center Square) — Arizonans in Congressional District 7 have picked candidates to run in the special general election for U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s seat.
Adelita Grijalva, the late Democratic congressman’s daughter, is the projected winner of the Democratic special primary, which was held Tuesday along with the Republican primary. As of Wednesday morning, she had 33,104 vote or 62% of the ballots cast, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Daniel Butierez is the projected winner among the Republicans, with 9,817 votes or 60.7% of the ballots.
The election is awaiting certification.
A former member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and employee of the Pima County Teen Court, Grijalva defeated Democrats Deja Foxx, Daniel Hernandez, Patrick Harris Sr. and Jose “Malvido” Malvido Jr.
“Thank you to the people of District 7,” Grijalva posted on X. “This movement does not end tonight. We are just getting started.”
Both primary winners were far ahead of their opponents in the number of votes.
In the Democratic primary, the candidate with the second highest number of votes was Foxx, with 11,245 votes or 21.1% of the ballots cast. Hernandez had 14.3% of the votes, and Harris and Malvido each had less than 1.6% of the ballots.
The congressional district in southern Arizona includes the state’s most populous county, Maricopa, which is home to Phoenix. Initial results posted Wednesday on the county elections website showed Grijalva winning 2,330 votes, good enough for 52.55% of the vote. A total of 4,461 votes were cast. Turnout was 20.81%.
Other counties in the district are Cochise, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Yuma. Grijalva won most of the votes in all of them.
Foxx had the backing of progressive activist and former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg. During a June debate monitored by The Center Square, Foxx said she wanted to help “bring in a new generation” of legislators.
“We have three vacancies because we failed to talk about age,” said Foxx in the debate.
Still, Grijalva was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. In a video posted on X, Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, called Grijalva “the progressive candidate” for Arizona’s 7th District.
“She’s not backed by billionaire donors,” said Sanders, who’s been traveling the country with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York City, to get progressives elected. “She is backed by the people.”
In the other primary, the Republican with the second highest number of votes in the congressional district was Jorge Rivas with 4,058 votes or 25.09% of those cast, as of Wednesday morning. Jimmy Rodriguez had 14.21% of the votes. Rivas is a Tucson restaurant owner. Roriguez is a general contractor.
In Maricopa County, Butierez is the projected winner with 760 votes or 46.63% of the vote.
“Southern Arizona deserves a fighter who knows struggle,” said Butierez on his campaign website. “A man who’s turned pain into purpose, failure into success, lives into opportunity, and will turn the challenges facing Southern Arizona into America’s greatest comeback story.”
A total of 1,676 ballots was cast in the county for the Republican primary. Turnout was 13.1%.
