Meet the Arizona mom running for her father's seat in Congress after he died in office

Daily Mail​

01-06-2025

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.