Latest news with #RaúlGrijalva
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Meet the Arizona mom running for her father's seat in Congress after he died in office
The daughter of a long-serving Arizona Democrat who passed while in office told the Daily Mail exactly why she is running for her late father's seat: to advance his legacy and create her own. Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of Raúl Grijalva, a 22-year veteran of the House of Representatives who passed in March due to lung cancer while serving his 11th consecutive term, announced within weeks of the tragedy she will run for the recently vacated seat. Former Rep. Grijalva was diagnosed with cancer in April 2024, and despite his illness, he ran and won reelection in November. 'My Dad will never be replaced,' the younger Grijalva told the Daily Mail in a phone interview Thursday. 'He really was a champion for so many issues having to do with people that are marginalized and unheard so and feel like they don't have a voice.' One of the most consistently liberal members of the House, Grijalva had served as the chairman of the House Progressive Caucus and the House Natural Resources Committee. Representing a huge swatch of the U.S.-Mexico border, he advocated for migrants and loudly railed against Trump's immigration agenda; his daughter told the Daily Mail she will do much of the same. 'We'll continue that movement of standing up for those who don't feel like anyone else is standing up for them,' she said, adding she had nothing positive to say about the Trump administration's immigration agenda. Her father, Grijalva told the Daily Mail, was in public office for 50 years, and she is the first to admit she is 'literally' following in his 'exact' footsteps. The candidate for Arizona's 7th Congressional district, an area around Tucson, the state's second biggest city, has already held two jobs that were formerly occupied by her father. Like her dad, Grijalva served on the Tucson Unified School District and recently resigned her seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors to run for his now-vacant congressional seat. If she wins the special election to fill her father's position in the House of Representatives, that would mark the third job she has taken that her Dad held at one point or another. The mother-of-three is seen as a frontrunner in the race to take her late father's now-vacant House seat. After witnessing her father lead her community for decades until his death while still serving in office, Grijalva told the Daily Mail that she is against term limits. 'It's not about age,' she said, adding 'I think that the people are the ones that should make that decision, not an arbitrary number about age.' The candidate also said that before her father's death, he was still active and able to meet constituents' needs. However, the late congressman missed nearly all of the House votes in 2025 before his death, amounting to about 96 percent of all votes, per the Clerk of the House of Representative's office. From 2023 to the beginning of 2025, late lawmaker missed roughly 40 percent of all votes, according to Govtrack. If elected, the Democrat vowed to pick up her father's mantle and stand up to President Donald Trump's agenda. 'The biggest issue right now is protecting our democracy and making sure that we keep to the established processes,' she said. 'Right now, Trump is just deciding wholesale to sign an executive order and waving away the rights of so many communities.' She also swore to be 'an unapologetic progressive voice in Congress,' saying she will fight to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from Republican reforms. Similar to the case of the Grijalva's, it is not entirely uncommon in Congress for members to run for seats held previously by a relative. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, for example, filled a seat previously held by his older brother for over a decade. The late Rep, Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., who died while serving in office last year, similarly was elected to the seat held by his father. There have also been husband and wife combos like the late Rep. John Dingell Jr., D-Mich., and his spouse Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. After serving in office for a staggering 60 years from 1955 - 2015, the record for longest-serving member of Congress in history, John's wife Debbie took the reins and still serves the Michigan area represented by her late husband. The younger Grijalva says she would bring a new perspective to Congress. 'Two percent of women in Congress identify as Latina, and less are Mexican-American,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Of the women in Congress, seven percent have minor children, so I would be representing a huge contingency of our nation.' And like any proud mother, she touted to the Daily Mail how her daughter just recently graduated high school and will soon be attending college at the University of Arizona. The special election for Arizona 's 7th Congressional district will take place on September 23, 2025.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
"Deficit of representation": How money — and the lack of it — discourages working-class Democrats
In the wake of the Democratic Party's spate of electoral losses, a new flock of Democratic candidates is striving to revolutionize the nation's politics ahead of the 2026 midterms. Political strategist and content creator Deja Foxx is hoping to spearhead that revolution in Arizona this summer. Just over a month ago, the 25-year-old reproductive rights activist and former Kamala Harris campaign staffer announced her bid for the seat of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who died in March. A special election is set for Sept. 23. Her grassroots campaign faces an uphill battle, in terms of both fundraising and competition from a slate of challengers in the state's July 15 Democratic primary, among them Grijalva's daughter, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva. In a Democratic stronghold like Arizona's 7th Congressional District, the primary winner is likely headed to Washington. But Foxx is unfazed. Through a patently Gen Z mix of social media influencing, retail-politicking charisma and grassroots activist grit, she appeals to prospective voters through trendy TikToks and candid storytelling about the ups and downs of her fledgling campaign. After all, she didn't pick politics, politics picked her, she declares in her campaign announcement video. Her upbringing in Tuscon — growing up relying on public assistance, experiencing homelessness and working nights to support herself and her mother — and watching politicians threaten the resources she needed pushed her into the activism that would launch her political career. While the nation first learned of her in 2017, when a video of her confronting then-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., over his support for defunding Planned Parenthood went viral, she hopes that Arizonans will soon see her as the progressive fighter in Congress she said she aims to be. "What we are doing is convincing folks, reminding them of their collective power, that when everybody takes a small action, it has a big difference," she told Salon in a video call, arguing that people have lost sight of that power under the chaos of the Trump administration and a political process that privileges the uber wealthy. "Our campaign is about a long-term strategy for the party and the political system that Gen Z is going to inherit, and part of that is reminding people that their collective power matters." At times with tears in her eyes as she recalled stories of people who've told her her campaign has galvanized them, Foxx spoke with Salon about why she decided to run for Congress, the challenges of being a young, progressive candidate, and how she's building a campaign strategy model that will work for young working-class people in a political landscape stacked against them. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You are by no means a stranger to politics. You've been in reproductive rights and grassroots activism since you were a teenager, and delving into political strategy and influencing. So I wanted to know, why did you decide that now is the time to run for office, and not just any office, but federal office? To your point, I have been in this work a decade, despite only being 25. And I got my start at a very local level, fighting my school board for better sex ed because I needed it, because I didn't have parents at home to fill in the gaps of a curriculum that was updated in the 80s, that didn't mention consent, that was medically inaccurate. But as we look ahead, I organized under Trump administration one. I showed up to town halls of Republicans here in Arizona that tried to deny funding to Planned Parenthood Centers, funding that I relied on when I had no parents and no money and no insurance. I showed up on the steps of the Supreme Court to protest the appointment of Supreme Court justices like Amy Coney Barrett, who were pushed through at the time, really, in the middle of a presidential election. When I look to this moment now and the effects of seeing things like Roe v. Wade overturned, feeling like we are further behind on our issues than when even I started, I feel a great sense of responsibility, and it's what brings me to this run for office. I feel a sense of responsibility to young people who deserve a fighter and a champion who's going to make sure that they have the ability to afford rent and groceries, that when they save up their paychecks, they're able to move out of their parents houses, and maybe, I don't know, one day buy a house, even though they didn't start saving in third grade or whatever — you know that meme, where it's like, "I shouldn't have been in third grade. I should have been saving for a house." I feel a great sense of responsibility to those young people who deserve a future they can look forward to, one free from the threat of climate change, one in which, no matter what state they live in, they can make decisions about if and when to start their families, and where they can afford the basics and a shot at getting ahead. And — and this is maybe a bit of a surprise — I feel a deep sense of responsibility to older generations who have fought for the rights that made it possible for me to get access to that birth control, which was not a given, to become the first of my family, to go to college as a first-generation American, someone raised by a single mom. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to those older folks who in this moment, I meet them at their doors and at the protests here on the ground in Arizona. I had a conversation with a woman the other night who was nearly brought to tears talking about the overturn of Roe v. Wade and how scary it is for her that the things she fought for are being overturned, and she may not live to see them reinstated. They are so hungry for a champion, too, someone who is young and has the energy to keep up their fight. The last thing I'll add here is that we are in a moment in which a 34-count convicted felon is in the White House; where Elon Musk, a billionaire, is calling families like mine the "Parasite Class" on Twitter. We are not in normal times. Like this is the alternative timeline, my friends. Like we need to be taking action right now. ... If you're not seeing these leaders — and it is a stretch to call these men leaders — if you're not seeing these folks and asking yourself "Why not me?" then you're asking the wrong questions. Thinking about that — you say you have a responsibility to young people, older folks — what message do you have for other young people, especially other people who are working class, who have a similar experience to you, who feel like running for office may be out of reach for them, even if it's something that they might want to do? You don't just feel that way. That's a fact, right? If you feel like running for office is out of reach for you, as a young, working-class person, you're being clear-eyed. You are seeing it as it is. There are so many barriers to running as a young, working-class person. I put out a Substack post about this recently. From the very beginning of this process, I had to doxx myself, which is a barrier enough for most of the young women I know to stay out of this work. And then you move on to something like fundraising, where the traditional wisdom on campaigns, strategies, have been built for a very particular kind of candidate: old, rich, white men. So the idea that you should call all your friends and family and ask them for money to start your campaign works a whole lot better when you are not the friend or family member that people call for money, which is the reality for so many of us. And then, when you think about what it takes, what it costs to just live while running for office, that is a barrier that feels insurmountable for most of us who are just one car breakdown away from not making rent. But what I want those young folks to know is that, one, they have a fighter in me. And, two, that I am doing this to win — full stop, period — to be their fighter and to expose those truths; to make it clear to people what the barriers to participation are and to give them new strategies and new road maps to get out there and take up leadership. We're invested in new ways of doing things, whether that's fundraising on platforms like Instagram and TikTok and Substack. We're building strategies that simply don't exist, that are better suited to candidates like us, and they won't replace every piece of traditional campaign knowledge, but they are suited to a different kind of candidate, who's more reflective of our generation and our upbringings. What I'll add here is that even though the barriers are high, I think about how some people have criticized me for not having the right kind of experience, never having run for state or local office, never having held a position at the state [legislature] or school board. But it's worth pointing out that our school boards are unpaid. Our state legislators, they make $24,000 a year ... If we make underpaid and unpaid labor a prerequisite to leadership, we are going to continue to be in a deficit of representation when it comes to age and economics. What we need, now more than anything, is people who get it. Our policy would look different if we had people in power who had made hard decisions in the grocery checkout line — people like us. But, instead, we have people like Donald Trump who have never even done their own grocery shopping, and that is because of the systems built around our elections and the barriers to participate. Right. And there's a plethora of criticism about the Trump administration, about President Trump, about everyone in his cabinet. But I'm also curious about the other side of things, with the Democratic Party, which you're running under. We saw a consensus that the 2024 election was largely a referendum on its failure to appeal to its base in favor of swinging more conservative, to appeal to moderate voters. Given your work as a political strategist, having worked on the Harris campaign as well, what changes do you think the Democratic Party needs to be making? I'm almost going to go all the way back to your first question to answer this question, which was when I was deciding if I wanted to get into this race. I had only a week or so because this is a special election, and I had to make calls to my family and friends to make sure that they were going to stay 10 toes down in my corner no matter what; that my support system was locked in with me. And I had to do the hard work of making sure that I could sustain this financially; that I could handle this on a safety level, even both physical and mental well-being. I have worked the back end of campaigns. I've supported candidates and causes as a strategist throughout the years, and on the other side as a surrogate, as a content creator, someone who spoke at the 2024 [Democratic National Convention]. I have been on both sides and I could not, in good faith, continue my work either behind-the-scenes or in front of the camera on behalf of this party unless I gave people something to get excited about, someone they could put their hopes on. Because in this moment, our party is picking predictability over possibility and failing to meet the moment. So to your question of what do we need to do to get out of this, I had two big learnings coming out of 2024: one, age matters. We saw that with [President Joe] Biden at the top of the ticket. Age was a central conversation, and we need younger leaders — I am brought to this election because, unfortunately, my member of Congress passed away while in the seat. The second thing that I learned while on the 2024 run is that primaries matter. There was an absolute sense that people didn't have a choice, that they felt left out of the process, and when I look at an opportunity like this in my district, a district that has been held for the last 22 years by a true progressive icon, I'll note, but basically my entire lifetime, and we have a safe blue seat, which will likely be decided by a primary that is about 100 days long, and depending on who sits in the seat, could be held for another few decades, it is our responsibility to give people in this district a good race. That is a long-term strategy, and it is the long-term strategy that Democrats need to be adopting. Instead of being scared of primaries, we need to be welcoming people like me into the fold, who are sticking our heads up to lead and engaging new people. I had a man the other day on the street tell me — he stopped me. I didn't know him. He had seen our launch video, seen himself in it, and told me about how he was hoping to get his rights restored in time to vote for us in this election. Just the other day, three additional volunteers showed up to our canvas, our door knock, who found us on Tiktok, who had never knocked doors for a candidate before. When we collected signatures, half of our signature gatherers had never gathered signatures for a candidate or a cause before. We are bringing in people in a special election primary in Arizona, who otherwise have been left out of this process. When I think about what does the party need to be doing? We need to be embracing primaries and our democratic process, letting people feel — not letting them, but rather engaging people in the space between big elections and embracing candidates like me who offer something different for this party. Not every candidate can use digital media, new media, effectively. Our campaign has gained 4 million views since launch, totally organic, good storytelling, not $1 of paid [advertising] behind it because we know how to use these platforms to reach people and how to tell a good story. Our party, instead of pushing people like me out, calling us an outsider, putting up institutional and establishment barriers, needs to be welcoming people like us in because we are the solution to that 20-something percent approval rating of our party. Bouncing off something you just said a few moments ago, that the Democratic Party is establishing institutional barriers, has labeled you and other candidates an outsider. Can you talk a little bit more about what that has looked like, and what this past month of your campaign has looked like as well? There's so much excitement on the ground. I'll be honest with you, as we knock these doors — and we've knocked hundreds — most people don't even know this election is happening. That's the fact. And I think it scares some people that we are attracting viral attention week after week to this election because it makes it harder to predict. Because when more people participate — and people are betting on a low-turnout election in which they can just invest in high-efficacy voters, and get away with that — it scares people and it changes people's strategies and challenges them to do something differently. I'll also share, on a personal level, that for people like me, who are first-time candidates, who are working-class, we are not supposed to rise to these positions of leadership. I was raised by a single mom and, like, it's just a fact that I don't have some of the same advantages as other people in my race. You know, I think about how just the other day, the former congressman's team gave his daughter his fundraising and email list, which is a major advantage in this race, and it's just one of those ways that we are seeing selection politics at play. And it's not to say that the other folks I'm running against haven't worked hard or are not qualified for this role, but it is to point out that there is a difference in terms of privileges and advantages here that come from legacy last names and legacy politics. What we do here in southern Arizona is going to have effects for the entire country in the 2026 midterms, in which young people are going to stick their head up and lead. What we do here now in the next 70-something days, maybe 60-something by the time this article comes out, is going to have effects on what young people are recruited to run, who is funded, who is endorsed. I want people to feel a sense of urgency around my race — our race — because it has the opportunity to affect all of these other races come 2026, and I promise you that if we win, and we win big, and we prove concept out here in southern Arizona that young progressive disruptors are winners, we will have better options come 2026 and 2028. Thinking about your vision as a candidate, what has been the response on the ground when you're going and knocking on doors, the comments you're getting on your various posts, both in terms of general reactions and receiving those donations? My understanding is that you're also not necessarily tied currently to any large organization to get those large donors. It's a balance, for sure, on the fundraising side, but you're right to say we're doing things differently. The response at the doors and online is what keeps me going when the response in D.C. is so mild, to say the least. I feel so energized knocking doors, in part, because that's my bread and butter. ... When people describe how they feel about our political process in this moment — Democrats in particular — the words are, by and large, negative. They feel hopeless. They feel left out. They feel discouraged, disheartened, disappointed, and so it cannot be understated that every door I knock, people leave feeling excited. That is a service to our party and our democracy as a whole. We are doing good work just by the nature of being in this race. And I've found that, like I said, at the doors, most people don't know this election is happening. So anybody who wants to tell you that someone has it in the bag is wrong, and this is the kind of election that could be decided by just a handful of votes. Every conversation counts. I'll share that people have been quick to discredit what we're doing online — those 4 million organic views on videos that make the political process, frankly, more transparent and feel more human — but we're seeing it have effects on the ground. ... I was at a Sunlink stop, which is one of our kinds of public transportation near the [University of Arizona's] campus in our district, and a girl stopped me and told me that her sister had sent her our videos and that her sister was like, tell all of your friends that they need to vote for this girl, and she asked if we could take a picture to send to her sister. What we are doing online is translating on the ground. And frankly, what we are doing on the ground is translating online. Each and every one of our videos is clips of us knocking the doors. I think about how just the other day, one of our volunteers that came out, Berta, she told me she had never volunteered for a political candidate before, but that she was tired of just critiquing things and wanted someone she could get behind to help build something better. So she found us on Tiktok, and she showed up to knock the doors for the very first time, and her and I walked around for three hours and knocked doors and had incredible conversations. So what I'm hearing on the doors and in the streets is, one, most people don't know this election is happening yet. We need to put ourselves in the mind of the voter and remember that for them, July is a long way away. They still got to pay June's rent. Like, let's be clear. The other thing is that, when they hear about us, when they hear our story, which is the American Dream's story, when they know that they have the shot to make history, to elect the first woman of our generation, my generation, they are excited about politics. In this moment, I can't stress enough how difficult it is to move people from hopelessness and disappointment to excitement, and our campaign is doing that. Last big question for you, so thank you for all of your time. Bouncing off of that — you've been able to appeal, it sounds, to so many people who otherwise might be disaffected voters right now. But we also talked about being up against a number of other Democratic primary candidates, including the late representative Raul Grijalva's daughter, Adelita Grijalva. As you said, who wins this primary is an indicator of how the election itself will go because this is a long-standing Democratic district. Why should Arizona voters who don't know about you, Arizona voters who are on the fence about you, vote for you? What do you have planned for them? The way we have been doing things isn't working, and I am the only break from the status quo in this race. They deserve more than a career politician in office. They deserve someone who, when they go to D.C., will fight on their behalf, and I have proved over the last decade that I am a fighter. And the final thing I'll say is that I am comfortable with using the power of this safer and bluer seat to stand up on their behalf, to stand up to the Trump administration. They have my commitment that I will not fold. ... That's my message to voters here in southern Arizona, that if you feel like the way things have been going isn't working, if you're unhappy with the state of this country as it stands, then we're going to need to do things differently, and I'm the candidate to do it. I want to offer a hopeful message to end, too, which is that there is so much to fight against in this moment, and they have my assurance that I will fight at every at every point. However, we have so much to look forward to. As a young candidate, the future is not theoretical to me. I am fighting to build something better that me and my generation can inherit, and I see a world in which we can build something better. This campaign is about offering that hope.
Washington Post
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The elections on Trump's mind
Good morning, Early Birds. It's April Fools' Day. Be careful out there. Send tips to earlytips@ Thanks for waking up with us. In today's edition … Daughter of recently deceased Rep. Raúl Grijalva announces campaign to fill his seat … but first … Voters in Wisconsin and Florida head to the polls today in what is expected to be the first major electoral test of President Donald Trump's second term. In Wisconsin, voters are set to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court that will determine whether the majority remains liberal or flips conservative. In Florida, special elections are being held for two House seats in deep-red territory where Democratic candidates have outpaced their Republican opponents in fundraising. Trump has endorsed Republican-aligned candidates in all three races and repeatedly urged support for them with virtual campaign rallies and social media posts. His top adviser Elon Musk has been especially involved in the Wisconsin contest, campaigning for the GOP-backed candidate, Brad Schimel, on Sunday in Green Bay. Meanwhile, Democrats hope strong fundraising could indicate that the Florida seats are more competitive than a few months ago. 'The whole country's actually watching this one,' Trump said Thursday at a telerally for Republican Jimmy Patronis, who is running for Matt Gaetz's former seat. 'It's a very big one.' 'This is the most important race in the country right now,' conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said during a telerally yesterday evening for Randy Fine, the GOP candidate seeking to fill the Florida seat vacated by national security adviser Michael Waltz. Democrats, Shapiro added, are 'pouring the money in because the Republican margin in the House is simply too narrow. The Republican margin is really, really close, and that means President Trump's agenda is hanging by a thread.' Republicans were so concerned about their slim margin that Trump pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations so she could keep her seat in New York. In Wisconsin, the potential redrawing of congressional maps has emerged as a focal point in the state Supreme Court race. That's why it's not an overstatement to say these three races are very much on Trump's mind. The elections serve as a referendum on Trump's first two months in office — and particularly the drastic efforts by Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service to downsize the federal government. Let's take a look at the three pieces of Trump's agenda that have factored prominently in the special elections: Entitlement programs are among the most contentious issues in the special elections in Florida, where the Democratic candidates are accusing their GOP rivals of wanting to undermine Medicaid and Social Security. The latter program is especially relevant in Waltz's former district, where 28 percent of the population is 65 and older. Ads by Democratic candidate Josh Weil seek to tie Fine to the House budget resolution that Democrats are warning will lay the groundwork for steep Medicaid cuts to help pay for Trump's agenda. A Weil commercial also claims Fine 'supports the idea that Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,' apparently trying to yoke Fine to Musk's criticism of the program during a podcast interview in February. Fine has denied wanting to harm Social Security and pointed to his 76-year-old father as an example of the older adults he wants to protect. 'I'm not going to do anything to threaten my Dad's retirement,' Fine said in a statement last month. 'And I won't do it to anyone else.' Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of the Volusia County Democratic Party, told us he is interested to see how Weil's focus on Social Security plays with voters in Florida with no party affiliation. It's a group that has broken for GOP candidates in Volusia County before, Sakhnovsky noted, but he predicted they're more up for grabs this time. 'When push comes to shove … when you see threats to Social Security showing up on TV on almost a daily basis, those low-information voters get motivated,' Sakhnovsky said. Even if Musk weren't pouring money into the Wisconsin race, Democrats are all too happy to make him the main character. Democrats supporting Judge Susan Crawford have hosted a statewide tour branded 'the People v. Elon Musk' and decried Musk's government cost-cutting tactics as haphazard and cruel. Polls have shown that Musk is less popular than Trump. About one-third of adults nationwide approved of the job Musk was doing, and 49 percent disapproved, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted in mid-February. Forty-five percent approved of the job Trump is doing, and 53 percent disapproved. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin) complained that media attention on Musk's influence has distracted from big-dollar Democratic donors who have contributed to Crawford's campaign, albeit on a smaller scale than Musk's fundraising. 'Elon Musk is like a shiny object that everyone's pointing at, but what you're missing is the entire underbody of what's really taking place,' Van Orden told us. Tariffs are top of mind this week as Trump prepares to escalate his global trade wars, especially hitting our northern neighbor, Canada. In Wisconsin, several manufacturing and agricultural groups have raised concerns about retaliatory tariffs pushing up costs. That could be a worry for Republicans who counted on the state's rural vote to elect Trump last year. Darin Von Ruden, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union — which did not make an endorsement in this race — told us that farmers have expressed frustrations that cuts to Department of Agriculture programs threaten the purchase of food aid. However, the tariffs are a more abstract concern. 'It's going to take some time for the effects of tariffs to actually hit farmers' pockets,' he said. 'There's certainly going to be a percentage of citizens that are going to change their minds because of the actions over the last month.' Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who has warned that tariffs could increase costs, told us it remains to be seen how much voters use the election to protest those higher prices. 'To the extent that the tariffs could contribute to inflation … to which it freezes investment and keeps our economy from taking off, I have a concern,' he said. 'It's a really high-risk strategy.' Trump and Vice President JD Vance are scheduled to have lunch at 12:30 p.m., and the president is expected to sign executive orders at 3:30 p.m. without reporters present. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is set to brief reporters at noon. First lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to host the 19th International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony at 1 p.m. The House is scheduled to meet at noon for legislative business and vote on bills starting at 1:30 p.m., including one that would overturn a Biden-era rule capping banks' overdraft fees that the Senate has already passed. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who has promised to go after what he has characterized as 'activist judges' who are blocking Trump's agenda, will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. titled 'Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts.' It will be a joint hearing with the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts, intellectual property, artificial intelligence and the internet and the subcommittee on the constitution and limited government. The House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), is scheduled to hold a hearing on the John F. Kennedy assassination investigation files at 2 p.m. The Senate is expected to vote today on the nomination of Matthew G. Whitaker to be the U.S. ambassador to NATO. The Senate Armed Services Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing at 9:30 a.m. for Lt. Gen. John Daniel Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona), announced yesterday that she is running to fill his seat. 'I am running for Congress because Southern Arizona deserves bold leadership that will fight for working families and stand up to Donald Trump,' she said in a statement. Adelita Grijalva, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, entered a Democratic primary that already included Daniel Hernandez, a former state representative. She launched her campaign with the support of Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. The special primary election for Arizona's 7th Congressional District is July 15, followed by the special general election on Sept. 23. The district heavily favors Democrats. Raúl Grijalva died on March 13 at the age of 77. Must reads: From The Post: From across the web: Anyone want to ask him why he's not wearing a suit? Thanks for reading. You can follow Meryl and Patrick on X: @MerylKornfield and @PatrickSvitek.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICT NEWSCAST: Wisconsin tribes bring concerns to the Statehouse, a tribute to U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva and Women's History Month.
The ICT Newscast for Friday, March 28, 2025, features the State of the Tribes address in Wisconsin. Plus, confusion over new national monuments named in California and a Women's History Month interview with Penobscot Nation basketmaker Theresa Secord. Check out the ICT Newscast on YouTube for this episode and more. A new law in New Mexico grants rights to Native students to wear traditional regalia. Family, friends, and colleagues gathered to honor the life and legacy of U.S. Congressman Raúl Grijalva, an ally to tribal nations and a man who many say never forgot his roots. St. Croix Tribal Chairman Thomas Fowler delivered the 21st annual State of the Tribes address at the Wisconsin state capitol, representing the state's 11 federally recognized tribal nations. He tackled issues such as tribal sovereignty, education, environmental threats, and public health. There is confusion over the status of two California national monuments created by former President Joe Biden. This comes after a post on the White House website hinting at the monuments' termination was later removed. Now, tribal leaders who fought for the protections want answers. Jacob Reynolds of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians helped craft the State of the Tribes speech for Wisconsin legislators. In this roundtable discussion with ICT's Shirley Sneve, he discusses the importance of state-tribe relations. Theresa Secord was a founder of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. For Women's History Month, here's a profile of her work. View previous ICT broadcasts here every week for the latest news from around Indian is owned by IndiJ Public Media, a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support ICT for as little as $10. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva's 'voice of conscience' will be hard to replace
I should have grasped the depth and inspirational mission of Raúl Grijalva sooner. That feeling of regret came crashing down on March 26 as I watched the funeral Mass of the Southern Arizona congressman. He died on March 13 at 77. I've known about his legislative work and his personal struggles or flaws, as political rivals would call them. But it'll be Grijalva's essence, the cultural heritage that he personified and the causes he relentlessly pursued that will be hard to replace. Whoever takes over his seat in Congress later this year will have a huge void to fill, not in the halls of Capitol Hill but in the hearts and minds of the people of this border region and beyond. 'We mourn the loss of a voice of conscience,' said Deb Haaland, secretary of the Interior under former President Joe Biden. Haaland paid tribute to Grijalva as 'powerful advocate for tribal communities' and a fighter for environmental justice. That was especially touching because the plight of Indigenous communities is often forgotten, at best, with few willing to spend political capital to stand with them. Arizona has 22 federally recognized tribes, but it was clear that Grijalva's sympathy for Native Americans had no boundaries. The son of Mexican immigrants first got into politics with the Raza Unida Party, part of the Chicano movement that sought political representation by staging boycotts, protests and walkouts. Some at the time called them violent, though Chicanos rejected that characterization. Grijalva later toned down his most radical instincts, but the movement's political culture stayed with him and apparently guided him throughout his long career advocating for immigrants' rights, environmental protections, public education and expanded health care. Grijalva, a Democrat, served 13 years on the Tucson Unified School District school board in the 1970s and '80s. He later served as a Pima County supervisor for 14 years, where he was instrumental in launching the county's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. He began serving on Congress in 2003 and quickly aligned himself with the left wing of the Democratic Party, a stance he carried until his passing. Grijalva was an unapologetic liberal who was never afraid to make 'good trouble' and 'necessary trouble,' as the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis used to say. He wasn't afraid to call for an economic boycott against Arizona after the state implemented the anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070 or to get arrested while protesting outside Trump Tower in New York in 2017. His challenges included notorious alcohol use and an ethics complaint by a former female staffer over creating a hostile workplace, which ended with a $48,000-plus settlement. None of that should minimize his lifelong work, which should be judged in its totality. Grijalva was an everyman in service, as my colleague E.J. Montini put it. And he leaves a legacy of a mentor and tireless champion for the 'unseen and overlooked,' as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told those gathered at his funeral in Tucson. Anyone charismatic enough to gain public support can go to Congress. But not everyone has the heart and affinity to put people first over their own financial and political ambitions. Too many go to Washington to forge their own fortunes, quickly forgetting who sent them there and why. The list is growing of those who are considering a bid to replace Grijalva. Gov. Katie Hobbs has set a special primary election for July 15 and the general election for Sept. 23 to fill the vacancy. Opinion: Grijalva is brave and blunt about it: Biden has to go The 7th Congressional District covers parts of Tucson and southwestern Arizona and cuts a bit into the West Valley. Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez has launched his candidacy, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, also a Democrat, said he's strongly considering throwing his hat in the ring. Others are expected to compete for the seat. The hardest part about Grijalva's death isn't filling his seat. Whoever wins surely will put up a fight in Washington to represent the predominantly Latino district. What Southern Arizona lost with Grijalva is a sliver of the Chicano movement that grew out of the desperate need for representation and a fight for a sense of belonging. We don't have to like the tactics of the movement that jump-started Grijalva's trajectory to appreciate the struggles and cultural contributions of Mexican Americans. Grijalva leaves a void that I doubt anyone can fill. Elvia Díaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or Follow her on X, (formerly Twitter), @elviadiaz1. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Raul Grijalva fought for the underdog. We need more like him | Opinion
