Adelita Grijalva wins Democratic primary to replace her father in US House, CNN projects
Grijalva, a former county supervisor, is the daughter of the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district for two decades before his death in March.
She'll be favored to win the Sept. 23 general election in this heavily Democratic district against Daniel Butierez, who CNN projects will win the Republican primary
Grijalva defeated a field that included former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez and 25-year-old activist Deja Foxx.
Arizona's 7th Congressional District, which includes parts of Tucson and most of the state's southern border with Mexico, has been without representation since March, when Raul Grijalva died due to complications from cancer treatments. The late congressman and former Congressional Progressive Caucus chairman was first elected to the House in 2002.
Adelita Grijalva entered the race as the front-runner and garnered the lion's share of endorsements in the contest, including support from both of Arizona's US senators as well as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She also benefited from her family's longstanding recognition in the district, saying she would continue her father's legacy.
Like her father, Grijalva served on the Tucson Unified School District governing board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors before running for Congress.
She pushed back on her opponents' efforts to frame her as the establishment candidate, saying that she applied for and earned her endorsements from various groups and has her own record of advocacy work, including running diversion programs while working at Pima County's Teen Court.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US Rep. Danny Davis set to announce he won't run for reelection to Congress
Danny Davis, the 83-year-old dean of Illinois' U.S. House delegation and a voice for progressive politics for decades, is expected to announce Thursday that he will not seek election to a 16th term representing his downtown and West Side district — the latest move in a generational change sweeping the state's and nation's political scene. Davis is also expected to announce his endorsement of veteran state Rep. La Shawn Ford in a budding primary contest to succeed him for the Democratic nomination in March, a well-placed source close to the congressman's decision-making said Wednesday. Ford announced his congressional bid in May but said he would not run if Davis had sought another term. Davis' decision to retire at the end of his current term in January 2027 would create the fourth open-seat congressional contest for Illinois Democrats next year. U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg and Robin Kelly of Matteson have opted to seek the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, along with Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. And U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston announced in May she would not seek a 15th term in Congress. All four districts are regarded as safely Democratic, meaning the winners of next year's March 17 Democratic primaries will be the heavy favorites in the general election. Davis' expected endorsement of Ford, who has been in the state legislature for 18 years, comes as a lengthy list of potential successors have lined up with an eye on running for the 7th Congressional District seat. In addition to Ford, at least eight people have filed to run, including attorney Richard Boykin, a former Cook County commissioner and Davis' former chief of staff. Chicago businessman Jason Friedman has also filed to run for the seat. 'I'm no spring chicken,' Davis told the Austin Weekly News on June 13 as he pondered his decision. 'Most people my age retired years ago.' Davis said he had been consulting supporters, his physicians and constituents. But he also acknowledged his tenure in the House and the role seniority plays on Capitol HIll, adding, 'I'm a senior member of Congress, not just a member.' Despite facing pressure in previous campaigns from younger challengers pushing a message of change in recent years, Davis survived primary reelection battles with the backing of the current Democratic establishment, a contrast to the old Democratic guard that he once fought against to win public office. Known for a deep, authoritarian bass voice that could have been used to voice movie trailers — and for his constant companion, his walking stick — Davis' tenure encompassed an evolution of Chicago politics over nearly a half century in public life. An Arkansas native, Davis after college moved to Chicago, where he was a community organizer with the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission and also served as a teacher in the city's public schools. He and other civil rights advocates were part of the 1960s Chicago Freedom Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King to challenge racial discrimination in city housing, education and employment. In 1979, he was elected 29th Ward alderman as a political independent, directly challenging the remnants of the Chicago machine three years after Mayor Richard J. Daley's death. He worked for the election of Harold Washington as the city's first Black mayor in 1983. In 1984 and 1986, he unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Cardiss Collins and, four years later, lost in taking on incumbent County Treasurer Ed Rosewell, but he won an at-large seat on the Cook County Board. In 1991, he entered the race for Chicago mayor in challenging incumbent Richard M. Daley in the Democratic primary and finished second, 33 percentage points behind. Two decades later, he dropped a mayoral campaign in favor of former ambassador and U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun as a Black 'unity' candidate who unsuccessfully challenged frontrunner Rahm Emanuel's bid to succeed Daley. It was in 1996, when Collins retired, that Davis launched his congressional career. He won a 10-way Democratic primary race for the 7th Congressional District seat, defeating a field that included then-County Board member Bobbie Steele and then-Alds. Dorothy Tillman (3rd), Ed Smith (28th) and Percy Giles (37th). The general election in the heavily Democratic district was a political formality. Davis, a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is widely considered to be one of Congress' most progressive members as he often leans to the far-left of Democratic Party politics. He has long supported Medicare for All, pushed for the Green New Deal energy initiatives, advocated for a higher federal minimum wage and voted against the Iraq War in 2002. In 2013, he co-signed a letter with other Democratic members of the state's U.S. House delegation urging the General Assembly to approve marriage equity. His 15-year-old grandson's murder by two teens who fought over a pair of Air Jordans prompted Davis to call for 'every unit of government to call a state of emergency' to boost social and economic development in the city's neglected neighborhoods. 'I know what it feels like to have a loved one whose life was wiped out unnecessarily for no apparent reason,' Davis testified in 2019 before the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. 'I have attended the funeral of so many children in my communities whose wonderful lives were interrupted by gun violence. I feel the devastation.' His tenure has not been without controversy. In 2004, he attended a religious ceremony at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., where he crowned Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who declared himself the Messiah, and Moon's wife, 'the King and Queen of Peace.' Davis in 2018 called Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who has made antisemitic and homophobic remarks, an 'outstanding human being.' He later backtracked on his praise, saying, 'Let me be clear: I reject, condemn and oppose Minister Farrakhan's views and remarks regarding the Jewish people and the Jewish religion.' In 2024, Davis easily won a five-way Democratic primary with 52% of the vote, which included overcoming challenges from Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the city treasurer, and Kina Collins, a progressive organizer. Two years earlier, in a largely two-person primary race, Collins put a scare into Davis when he won by a relatively close margin, 52% to 46%. Collins also challenged Davis in 2020, losing the Democratic primary 60% to 14%. 'I'm calling this a victory … for senior citizens,' Davis told supporters after his 2024 primary win. But during the first half of this year, Davis had raised only $54,000. He had nearly $115,000 in his federal campaign bank account as of July 1, however, he also listed more than $66,000 in campaign debts. In a 2010 oral history that is part of the Chicago anti-apartheid collection at Columbia College, Davis reflected on what was then an already lengthy political career. 'Although I've won offices, I've lost them. I've campaigned. I've spent a lot of money, I've spent a lot of time, energy, and effort,' Davis said. 'I've neglected a lot of people that I love, I've neglected a lot of people that I like and would love to have spent more time with them. But the necessities of politics and the desire to do it kind of forced me to do what I do,' he said. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Keller: Wu looks to play "Trump card" against Kraft, who has an uphill climb in the polls
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global. With less than 100 days to go before Boston voters choose their mayor for the next four years, incumbent Michelle Wu is basking in the glow of what one recent poll found was a whopping 65% job approval rating among Boston voters. But there are some trouble spots on the Wu record that chief challenger Josh Kraft thinks he can exploit. That includes the controversial, increasingly costly rehab of Franklin Park's White Stadium into a shared public/private facility. "Mayor Wu thinks the voters of Boston are a bunch of fools," said Kraft at a press conference slamming Wu for hedging on the projected cost of the project. "I did vote for Mayor Wu the first election, [but] I have serious concerns this time," said Jamaica Plain resident Melissa Hamel, part of a group suing the city over the White Stadium project. "I don't like the fact that our community meetings have been less than transparent. Basically we were told what we were gonna get, we weren't asked." And Kraft sees a political opportunity there. "This election is about giving voters a a candidate that says they want to be inclusive of all voices and a candidate that actually listens to those voices before a decision is made," he says. To which Wu countered: "All he said is that we don't listen enough and he will listen more. But my question is, listen to who? Trump mega-donors?" There it is, the Wu campaign's Trump card. The president is about as popular in Boston as a packed subway car in a heatwave with no AC. And that recent poll showed standing up to Trump was a top three issue on the minds of Boston voters. "The federal government has retreated from the real challenges that we face everyday," Wu said. And while Kraft says he's never voted for Trump and thinks he's unfit, his chance for an upset may depend on somehow trumping the Trump card. The most recent polling had Wu with a huge 30-point lead. Can Kraft possibly overcome that? Yes, but he has a tough climb ahead. Despite criticism over White Stadium, bike lanes and the state of the public schools, the mayor's personal popularity is sky-high, while Kraft is running TV ads trying to boost his own approval rating. It's been 76 years since an incumbent mayor of Boston lost a re-election bid, and Wu has proven she's not going to be a pushover.
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Congressman Danny Davis to announce he won't run for re-election, sources say
Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL), who represents downtown Chicago, parts of the South and West sides, and many western suburbs, will not be running for re-election in 2026. Sources confirmed to CBS News Chicago that Davis will retire at the end of his 30th year in office next year. He'll make a formal announcement of his decision on Thursday. At age 83, only eight of the 435 members of the House of Representatives are older than Davis. The road to becoming a political staple began in 1979, when Davis became a member of the Chicago city Council, spending 11 years representing the 29th Ward on the West Side. In 1990, he waged his first successful campaign for the Cook County Board of Commissioners. After winning a second term in 1994, and in 1996 he ran for Congress, winning the 7th District seat vacated by Cardiss Collins, who he had unsuccessfully challenged twice in the 1980s, and would go on to win 14 more terms in Congress. As he geared up for his last race in 2024, he was asked how he would respond to people who might say it's time for a fresh set of eyes in Congress. "I'm not running to be the quarterback for the Chicago Bears," Davis said. "My legs may not be the same, but my mind is great." Sources said Davis has made up his mind to hang it up after he finishes his 30th year in Congress next year, joining a tidal wave of change in Illinois' Congressional delegation. In addition to Davis stepping down, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) also is retiring after his term. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Congresswoman Robin Kelly Davis (D-IL) are giving up their seats in the House so that they can run for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). "I think there are probably 30 people running for Congress, at least, in the Chicagoland area," said Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL). Inevitably, that number will grow. Former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin already declared he's running for Davis' seat. Illinois State Rep La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) is expected to run with Davis' endorsement. Recently retired Ald. Walter Burnett Jr and Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner also could enter the race, though Burnett is also on Mayor Brandon Johnson's list of possible replacements for the CEO at the Chicago Housing Authority. As for Davis, colleagues said he'll be remembered for his stance on voting rights, affordable healthcare, criminal justice reform, social justice, and civil rights. "Provided leadership to their constituencies that will be very hard to replace," said Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL). "An upright and morally conscious guy, you know? We'll see what happens next, but we're lucky to serve with him," Casten said.
