Democrat succeeds her late father in Congress as GOP House majority shrinks

Democrat Adelita Grijalva has won a special election in battleground Arizona, securing the congressional seat left vacant by her father’s death and further eroding Republicans’ razor-thin House majority.

The Associated Press reports that Grijalva, a former Pima County supervisor, defeated business owner and contractor Daniel Butierez, the Republican nominee, in Tuesday’s election in southern Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.

Grijalva will serve the remaining 15 months of the term of Raul Grijalva, who died in March following complications from cancer treatment.

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The younger Grijalva’s victory was anything but a surprise in the left-leaning district. Democrats enjoy a nearly two-to-one voter registration advantage over Republicans in the Hispanic-majority district, which stretches from Yuma to Tucson and includes almost the entire length of the state’s border with Mexico.

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Republicans currently control the House 219-214, with two vacant seats remaining. 

Besides Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, there’s also a vacancy in Texas 18th Congressional District, a heavily Democrat-dominated district in Houston, following the March death of Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner. The special election to fill the seat will be held on November 4, which is Election Day 2025.

Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a right-leaning seat where Republican Rep. Mark Green stepped down in July to take a job in the private sector, is also currently vacant. The special election to fill the seat will be held on December 2.

Grijalva, thanks in part to her family name and her support from national progressive rock stars, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, grabbed over 60% of the primary vote this summer in a five-candidate showdown.

Progressive activist and social media influencer Deja Foxx came in a distant second.

Grijalva, who with her victory became Arizona’s first Latina in Congress, targeted President Donald Trump as she campaigned,

“In Congress, I commit to fight Trump’s cruel agenda, like the Big Ugly Bill that took away coverage from nearly 383,000 Arizonans and 142,000 children,” Grijalva pledged in a social media post, as she took aim at Trump, congressional Republicans, and their sweeping domestic policy measure that they named the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Grijalva had also said that if she won, she would immediately sign a discharge petition by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. The petition, which is currently just one vote shy of passing, calls on the GOP-controlled House to vote to urge the Justice Department to release the files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Butierez, as he campaigned, had been promoting himself as the change candidate in a district controlled by Democrats since the seat was created over two decades ago.

“This is your chance to actually get a Representative who will represent everyone. If you vote we win, if you don’t only the radicals will have representation,” he wrote on X.

Butierez, who as the 2024 GOP congressional nominee lost to the elder Grijalva while Trump narrowly carried the southwestern battleground state at the top of the ballot, easily won this summer’s Republican primary in the special election.

While Trump carried Arizona last year after losing it in 2020, 2024 Democratic presidential nominee and then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by 23 points. 

Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin, in a statement after the race was called, said that “Rep.-elect Grijalva won a hard-fought race. Now, Arizonans will have a fighter in their corner who will stand up to Trump on behalf of families who want to see real leadership in Washington.”