Adelita Grijalva wins Arizona special primary in bid to succeed her late father
Adelita Grijalva beat four other challengers in the Democratic primary to succeed her father, who had represented the same southern Arizona House district until he died in March, prompting a special election to replace him.
The district stretches across much of the state's southern border and includes portions of Tucson.
The former Pima County supervisor's most competitive challengers included former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, who gained prominence for helping save former Rep. Gabby Giffords's (D-Ariz.) life when he was an intern during the 2011 shooting, and Gen Z influencer Deja Foxx.
The Arizona special primary received national attention, not just because of the late Grijalva's prominence, but also because it was seen as yet another test for a party grappling with generational tensions within its ranks.
The 25-year-old Foxx had seen some momentum in the closing weeks of the race, leading to speculation that the party could see another upset similar to the one in New York City's mayoral primary in June, in which Millennial democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
But unlike Cuomo, Adelita Grijalva enjoyed endorsements not only from members of the center, like Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), but also progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Ariz.).
Grijalva touted her experience in the community in the days leading up to the race.
'When I say I am a proponent of preschool, it's not just saying that I'm going to do preschool. I actually created a whole system in Pima County, where every year $10 million is dedicated to free preschool,' she told The Hill, referring to the Pima Early Education Program Scholarships, which the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted for in 2021.
Former Vice President Harris carried the district in November by 22 points, meaning that she's seen as the heavy favorite to win the seat in the special general election on Sept. 23.
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mamdani meets with AOC, NY congressional delegation and Sanders
NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani drew rave reviews from fellow Democrats on Wednesday after a meeting hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Washington, D.C., along with a separate sit-down with Sen. Bernie Sanders. The New York City Democratic mayoral candidate met for nearly two hours with lawmakers at a breakfast gathering, but did not meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Sen. Chuck Schumer. 'I hope that this conversation can be constructive to bring the party together and rally behind our nominee,' Ocasio-Cortez said ahead of the closed-door meeting, which attracted several lawmakers from around the nation. Ocasio-Cortez, who gave Mamdani a key boost with her endorsement in the primary, left the building without addressing reporters, as did the mayoral candidate. The charismatic Democratic nominee got thumbs-up from fellow lefties in Congress, who warned establishment Democrats to get in line behind the front-runner after he romped to victory over ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary last month. 'Anyone who's not endorsing this incredible, dynamic leader is missing an opportunity,' said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a former leader of the House progressive caucus. 'It's hard not to be won over,' she said. Among the New York lawmakers at the sit-down was Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who backed Mamdani after he won the primary and has helped build bridges with fellow Jewish lawmakers. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., praised Mamdani as the real deal after the meeting. 'It's just beautiful to have someone who is so authentic, you know, that money cannot buy that.' Velazquez said it wasn't rocket science to expect most of the city's lawmakers to endorse Mamdani in the race against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and Cuomo, who's running as an independent. 'We are Democrats,' Velazquez added. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., a leading moderate lawmaker in the city's delegation, was conspicuous by his absence. Some Israel backers have opposed Mamdani over his harsh criticism of the Jewish state and refusal to abandon the slogan 'globalize the intifada,' although he recently said he wouldn't use the phrase. Jeffries and Schumer have both promised to meet Mamdani but say they'll do so back in New York City, with Jeffries saying he planned to meet in Brooklyn by the end of the week. Sanders, I-Vt., gushed over Mamdani's political skills after a separate meeting on Capitol Hill. He warned that corporate interests are scrambling to block him from winning the battle for City Hall in November. 'The oligarchs are prepared to undermine democracy and spend tens of millions to buy the election for his opponents,' Sanders said. 'We will not allow that to happen.' Mamdani returned the favor by praising Sanders as one of his political heroes. 'Bernie may be the great Senator from Vermont but he's Brooklyn through and through,' Mamdani posted on X. _____
Business Insider
14 minutes ago
- Business Insider
New York's tech elite give Mamdani points for 'charisma' — and engaging with them at closed-door meet
Zohran Mamdani had no deck, but plenty of pitch when he met with New York City's tech community on Wednesday night. At an invite-only fireside chat with venture capitalist Kevin Ryan, the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate tried to sell a room of tech workers and startup investors on his vision for a city that works for the working class. And he mostly avoided the controversy surrounding his views on Israel and tax hikes for the city's millionaires and billionaires, according to multiple people who attended the event. Fresh off a primary win powered by the blunt message that New York is too expensive, Mamdani spent about an hour taking questions from New York's tech workers at an event hosted by the Partnership for New York City, Tech:NYC, and AlleyCorp, Ryan's venture capital firm that incubates and invests in startups. The crowd of some 200 people included startup founders, angel investors, and general partners from venture capital funds. The event, held at a gleaming skyscraper in Midtown, offered a stark contrast to the candidate's grassroots campaign, which was built around free city buses, a freeze on New York rents, and tax hikes for millionaires. Mamdani leaned in, fielding questions with a mix of what attendees who spoke to Business Insider characterized as "charisma" and pragmatism. Ryan told Business Insider that when someone in the audience raised President Donald Trump's social media post about Mamdani, which referred to him as "a 100% Communist Lunatic" who "looks TERRIBLE," he joked that it must have hurt Mamdani to hear he looked terrible, drawing scattered laughs. During their discussion, Mamdani and Ryan pinballed from the state of affairs in New York's tech scene to initiatives across housing, childcare, transportation, healthcare, and government efficiency, attendees said. Last week, Mamdani collided with tech's more conservative wing on social media after a Sequoia Capital investor's viral comments referring to the candidate as an "Islamist." Ryan said the post didn't come up during the chat, but one audience member did ask Mamdani about his past comments on Israel. Mamdani deflected, Ryan said. "He was trying to focus on being mayor of New York," Ryan said, "not mayor of the Middle East." Mamdani was somewhat vague, Ryan and other attendees said, when asked about his previous comments about billionaires. "I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality," Mamdani said in a TV interview in June. He seemed to be reaching out to the business community, nonetheless. "He didn't have to meet with the CEOs," said Ryan, referring to a Tuesday meeting with New York's business leaders. In that meeting, Mamdani reportedly said that he would not use the phrase "globalize the intifada" and that he would "discourage" others from doing so, after months of declining to condemn the phrase that some interpret as a call to violence against the Jewish people. At Wednesday's event, one attendee, who works at an artificial intelligence company, said he saw the candidate's rhetoric soften into a more pragmatic approach. The person said that when someone asked Mamdani what he hoped to achieve in his first hundred days in office, the candidate referenced a 2009 proposal by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to make cross-town buses free. Mamdani has said that he plans to make every bus in New York free. "I was glad to see him being open to new ideas and working with people outside his base," said Yoni Rechtman, a Brooklyn venture capitalist who attended the event. "Over the last few months, he's done a good job moderating on issues that matter to New York." Rechtman questioned if that was because of "an authentic commitment to pragmatism" or "just typical politicking." "He's engaging," Ryan said, "even though he knows that many people in the room don't agree with a number of his positions. I will give him credit for reaching out." As an organizer, Ryan played both host and ambassador. He's among the early architects of New York's startup scene, the original " Silicon Alley insider." His hands were on many of its flagship tech companies: Gilt Groupe, MongoDB, and even Business Insider, which he started along with Henry Blodget and Dwight Merriman in 2007. Ryan, who has previously cohosted events with Mamdani rivals Mayor Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo, and other New York politicians, said he hasn't endorsed a candidate. This event, he said, came together after Mamdani's primary win and offered a chance to introduce the candidate to the tech ecosystem — and for the ecosystem to size him up. A spokesperson for Mamdani didn't return a request for comment. Mamdani's campaign has proposed a 2% income tax hike on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year — a bracket that likely doesn't include most of the city's early-stage founders and startup employees, and might only graze a few of the investors in the room. Zach Weinberg, a New York tech founder who notched one of the city's biggest startup exits with the $2.1 billion sale of Flatiron Health in 2018, didn't attend the fireside chat, but he didn't mince words when asked about Mamdani's platform. While the candidate "seems like a perfectly nice guy," Weinberg told Business Insider, he believes many of Mamdani's policies, especially rent freezes and higher taxes, "will not work" and could do more harm than good. "If he pushes tax rates higher on residents, you will see people move out of the city, which actually decreases tax revenue," he said. "Super wealthy people have flexibility where they live." He pointed to hedge fund manager David Tepper's departure from New Jersey — a move that caused a drop in the state's annual tax revenue — as a cautionary tale for what happens when tax policy collides with high-net-worth mobility. Mamdani sits further to the left than most in a room full of card-carrying capitalists, said Ryan. But he tried to show on Wednesday that he's willing to engage with a spectrum of viewpoints ahead of the general election, where he will face a Republican and several independent candidates, he added. When asked about technology's role in the government, Mamdani lamented that while he can track a food delivery order on his phone, he can't monitor a complaint he's logged in NYC311, the city's information and service hotline, as easily. The public sector, he told the group, could learn from the private sector in how it applies technology. "He's a good politician and understands that we need to create jobs in the city if people want to pay for anything," Ryan said.
14 minutes ago
GOP senators urge Trump administration to reverse $6 billion education funding freeze
A total of 10 Republican senators are urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision to withhold more than $6 billion in federal funds for education programs already appropriated by Congress. 'The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump's goal of returning K-12 education to the states,' the GOP senators wrote in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought obtained by ABC News. 'This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families,' the letter stated. Federal aid for schools is typically allocated each year on July 1, but aid was paused on June 30 in an ongoing review of education funding, according to an Education Department memo sent to Congress obtained by ABC News. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., led the group of senators signing onto the letter -- a rare rebuke by Republicans of the president's education policies. Capito, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), is a staunch supporter of Education Secretary Linda McMahon and her mission to overhaul the Education Department. The letter encourages Vought to release the funding to states, noting it was already approved by Congress in a short-term spending bill this past spring. The funding that has been paused includes grants for after-school care, student support, English language and adult education, among other programs. The senators' letter comes just days after about two dozen state attorneys general and Democratic governors sued the Trump administration over the funding review that's left many education leaders scrambling as the school year approaches. 'We want to see students in our states and across the country thrive, whether they are adult learners, students who speak English as a second language, or students who need after-school care so that their parents can work. We believe you share the same goal,' the senators' letter stated. In Alabama, where Trump won overwhelmingly in 2024, Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey told ABC News that he's frustrated the administration decided to halt congressionally appropriated funding in the middle of the summer. 'We're talking about transparency and consistency and making good on a promise,' Mackey told ABC News. 'We're talking about programs that Congress has already authorized and just three weeks before school starts, you just find that the check is not coming.' The Education Department referred questions about the funding pause to OMB, which told ABC News many of the programs "grossly misused" government funds to promote a "radical leftwing agenda." The Impoundment Control Act -- a law that states Congress must consider and review executive branch withholdings of budget authorities – requires OMB to specify the duration of proposed partial-year deferrals. In a statement to ABC News, an OMB spokesman said no decisions have yet been made. 'We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs,' the senators wrote in the letter. 'However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds.' Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to lift an injunction blocking the administration's efforts to gut the Education Department allowed the administration to take a step toward fulfilling Trump's goal of dismantling the agency completely. Such a move would require congressional approval. South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, one of the senators who signed the letter, introduced legislation, called "Returning Education to Our States," that would block grant funds to states and redistribute statutory functions of the department to other agencies. The proposed legislation hasn't been taken up in the Senate this year and would likely fail without 60 Senate 'yes' votes. The other Republican senators who signed the letter were: Susan Collins, of Maine; John Boozman, of Arkansas; Katie Britt, of Alabama; Deb Fischer, of Nebraska; John Hoeven, of North Dakota; Jim Justice, of West Virginia; Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska.
