It’s hot election summer — at least according to Democrats who are organizing behind youthful and progressive candidates in a series of off-year primaries.
First was Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old state legislator who won New York’s Democratic mayoral primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (More on that race below.) Now, a special election for a vacant congressional seat in southern Arizona is grabbing attention in part because of a young Democrat’s campaign.
After Rep. Raúl Grijalva died in March at 77, Deja Foxx, 25, is gaining ground ahead of Tuesday’s special Democratic primary in Arizona’s 7th District, running on a message of generational change and hoping to leverage support from her almost 400,000 TikTok followers and 240,000 Instagram followers. But she doesn’t have a clear path against former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, the late congressman’s daughter and former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez.
Grijalva, 54, with endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., doesn’t give Foxx the same ideological opening that Mamdani exploited in New York. Not only did Grijalva’s father serve the district in Congress for over 20 years, but Hernandez also has siblings who serve in the state House.
Still, the race has become part of a broader nationwide conversation among Democrats about the ages of their party’s elected leaders and the desire for generational change.
In a recent interview, Foxx acknowledged that her age has played a role in her campaign messaging and the support she has drawn from young people across the country.
“We have lost ground with young people as a party for the first time in decades ... and it’s not enough to just put our members of Congress on TikTok, right, or brief them on the trends or put mini-mics in their face. We need to give young people real leadership,” Foxx said.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary is likely to win September’s general special election to represent a stretch from Tucson to the U.S.-Mexico border.
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