Latest news with #DejaFoxx
Politico
4 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Ben Jacobs on what Deja Foxx's loss means for Democrats
Ben Jacobs on what Deja Foxx's loss means for Democrats | The Conversation lead image
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
They're calling her an influencer. She's calling it campaign strategy.
TUCSON, ARIZ. — On a Saturday afternoon, Deja Foxx is staging a TikTok Live in her living room. A phone tripod is set up in front of her kitchen table. The frame is centered on a slouchy sofa against an adobe wall, where a chile ristra hangs on one side. 'All right, everybody, take your seats,' she tells the mix of young volunteers, family members and campaign staff who are gathered to help her. 'You have some really great mail to open, and I'm so excited because usually it's just me and my mom that do this.' She goes live and takes a seat next to her mom on the couch. One volunteer reads a letter from a 19-year-old named Henry from California: 'Even though I can't vote for you, I adore your campaign,' he wrote. 'We need more young leaders and new, fresh ideas from us, Gen Z. As someone who grew up on MediCal, and free public school lunch, who currently is uninsured, I enjoy your background and fighting for us.' Another volunteer read a note from 20-year-old Julie, who wrote that while she's been frustrated and overwhelmed by the state of politics, following Foxx's campaign gave her hope. 'I've been writing to my officials, but wanted to write something positive for a change. Keep doing what you're doing.' Other letter writers included a 22-year-old activist who started organizing after the Parkland shooting, a college student in Phoenix who offered to work for Foxx's political office in the future, a 23-year-old from Chicago who started following her social media years ago, a North Carolina dad of a daughter moving to Arizona, and a Kentucky woman worried about Medicaid coverage. Volunteers spent 30 minutes reading that day's mail. During the weekly segment, the audience is usually in the thousands. Most of the notes included a donation, with the amounts ranging from $20 to $2,000. By the end of the read out Foxx had raised $4,000, mostly from people located outside Arizona. Just two days before, she announced she hit $500,000 in campaign donations, raised through 18,000 individual donors. Just two months ago, Foxx wrote on Substack about the difficulties of running her campaign for Congress as a Gen Z candidate. She made a plea directly to her online followers: 'Our biggest challenge and the only one that really matters: You haven't invested in us yet.' At the time, a slow trickle of donations was keeping afloat her campaign to fill the seat left by U.S. Rep Raúl Grijalva, who represented the southern Arizona district for over 20 years. Shortly after the lawmaker's death in March, his daughter Adelita Grijalva — who has served for decades in local politics on Tucson's school board and more recently on the Pima County Board of Supervisors — tossed her hat in the ring for the Democratic primary. Then came the endorsements: Arizona U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The winner of that primary, which takes place July 15 and includes former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, will almost certainly go on to win the September special election in this solidly Democratic district. Foxx announced that she would take on Grijalva in early April. Most of her short political life — at 25, she would be the youngest woman elected to Congress — has focused on reproductive rights. She served on the board of Planned Parenthood in Arizona at age 17, worked in Tucson health clinics as a sex educator in high school, and more recently worked on the Prop 139 Ballot Initiative campaign in 2024, which enshrined the right to abortion in the state's constitution. But while Foxx doesn't have the backing of 'the establishment,' as she refers to it, or the name recognition of Grijalva, she's created her own buzz by using her social media platforms to speak directly to her generation. Over the past month, her stories have been viewed almost 30 million times on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. She also has thousands of followers on Substack. That support and the donations that followed afforded her television advertisements, something that was out of reach when she started. Her social media savvy has allowed her to bypass the need for big donors, build her own following, and capitalize on national support that's percolated from the ground up. Along the way she's making the argument that her social media skills aren't just part of a campaign strategy, but necessary to communicate the politics of the party as the electorate grows younger and more disillusioned. 'We saw people in the party, in the traditional media, wringing their hands, 'How did we lose young people in this last election? Why did they move toward apathy and the other side? … And it's because we're failing to compete in social media and new media spaces,' Foxx said. 'If we want to win in 2028, I promise you that it is going to require electing leaders in this party who can be effective messengers.' Foxx learned the power of a viral moment when she was a 16-year-old activist for Planned Parenthood. At a town hall in 2017, she asked former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) why he would deny her the American dream by voting against funding that made birth control accessible to people who grew up in poverty. Foxx, who was insured through Medicaid at the time, got her birth control from Planned Parenthood. A clip of the exchange went viral. 'I woke up the next day and millions had seen the video,' she said. It's a moment that changed how she thought about activism. The fact that millions of people watched her on their phones and computers put her on equal footing in public discourse with the United States senator, she said. 'As a 16-year-old girl working at a gas station … that is remarkable.' In the nine years since, the political world has grown to recognize the necessity of social media in campaigns, and politicians have turned to Foxx for her expertise. At the same time she was becoming a prominent reproductive rights activist, she used Instagram to build community among her peers through her organization Gen Z Girl Gang. She worked as an influencer and digital strategist for the Kamala Harris campaign in 2019 and later as a social media director at a political action committee. In 2024, she was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention in support of Harris as an activist and content creator. But it's in her own run for Congress where she has been able to test these communication strategies herself. On her TikTok and Instagram accounts, soundbites from her debates have racked up millions of views. More personal reels, like when she surprised her mom with her first batch of campaign literature, have gone viral. She's embraced being interviewed by independent journalists with followings on places like Substack and YouTube. 'She's using communication styles and platforms that are meeting people where they're at. That style may turn off some older voters, but it's going to excite younger voters who are particularly disaffected or disenfranchised or disheartened by American politics and even the Democratic party,' said Jessica Maddox, an associate professor of digital media at the University of Alabama. 'I've been particularly impressed with her TikTok presence, because it feels very authentic.' That authenticity is the main ingredient in connecting with young voters online, experts say. Maddox and others pointed to the success of Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign in New York as an example of how young politicians are tapping into social media to drum up real support at the polls. Both candidates utilized platforms to engage with people, like Gen Z, who are likely to sit out primaries where voters tend to be older. The strategy puts lesser known candidates on a more equal playing field, allowing them to subvert the traditional hierarchies that fuel campaigns. 'There's always been a tight relationship between legacy media and politics, and social media kind of upends that,' Maddox said. '[Foxx] can kind of bypass more traditional outlets and get the message out herself.' Social media has also turned a local race into a national fundraiser, which has helped her stay competitive. Candidates like Grijalva and Hernandez have benefited from deeper donor pockets, and outside support from political action committees. By early May, both candidates had already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Arizona Republic. Their latest campaign finance numbers are expected to be released soon. Foxx announced she had hit $600,000 in donations at the end of June. 'It's an interesting social media element that someone these days could have supporters kind of all over the country, even though they're running for a very specific seat,' said Kathryn Coduto, a professor of media science at Boston University. While there is a scarcity of polls in the race, a recent one commissioned by Foxx's campaign shows her name recognition has risen significantly since May, when half of likely voters hadn't heard of her. And, on Wednesday, David Hogg's political action committee announced it would be endorsing her in the race. Hogg, who became famous for his activism after the Parkland mass shooting, now runs a political organization called Leaders We Deserve, aimed at building generational change for Democrats. 'If we replace one of the oldest members of Congress with the youngest — Deja is just 25 years old — we could send an incredibly strong message about which direction the Democratic Party is heading in, and show people how we are dramatically changing to meet this moment,' Hogg said in an Instagram Reel. While Foxx has worked as an influencer in the past, now that she's running for office that label has been used to undercut her years of political work and activism. At her first debate, Foxx also pointed out that some of her opponents have belittled her influencer experience. In recent news articles, people associated with Grijalva's campaign have questioned whether Foxx's national reach is the same as in-district community support. The label 'influencer' carries a lot of baggage, experts say. It's still seen as superficial or trivial despite its power in activism and politics. It's also another way of writing off young people, particularly women, as unserious. 'It's seen as like little girls playing instead of actually utilizing this tool to accomplish something and talk to constituents,' Coduto said. Jade Larson, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on political fandom and social media, said it's also not surprising that there is such a stigma around being a politician-influencer. 'Every time media is used in a new way in politics, it's this scandalous thing,' she said. 'You can track it all the way back to Bill Clinton going on the 'Late Night Show' and playing saxophone, to Obama starting POTUS on Twitter, to Trump making his own social media [network]. It's always something that's scandalous, and people push back against it until it kind of becomes the mainstream and the norm.' Arguably it is the mainstream now. The power of social media that Foxx tapped into nearly a decade ago has only grown more influential in politics and the media — two industries that are closely intertwined. A report from Pew Research Center found that over half of U.S. adults get some of their news from social media, with women and Democrats making up greater regular news consumers on apps like TikTok and Instagram. These users also skew younger, with those between the ages of 18 to 40 making up the bulk of social media news consumers. In a separate poll by Pew Research, 48 percent of TikTok users ages 18 to 29 say keeping up with politics is one of the reasons they are on the platform. 'A whole lot of congresspeople can give a very solid MSNBC interview,' Foxx said. But as someone who interviewed them as a content creator at the State of the Union, 'I'm telling you that when they are put in front of an iPhone, there are so many members that fail to communicate. They don't think the way that our generation thinks. They fail to understand sound bites and algorithms, and youth or even meme culture.' At the same time that these social media strategies are taking off, voting power is also starting to shift to the very people that use them. Soon, Gen Z and Millennials will have just as much political sway as Gen X and the Baby Boomers — if they go out and vote, Coduto said. 'If you can cultivate enough excitement and you can find a way to really break through and get people to the polls by using social media, then I think it's going to be an unstoppable strategy.' Feeling overwhelmed by the news? The 19th is considering new ways to keep you informed. But we need your input. Fill out this quick survey to share your thoughts. The post They're calling her an influencer. She's calling it campaign strategy. appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who is Deja Foxx? Arizona Democratic primary challenger rejects 'influencer' tag
Activist and social media personality Deja Foxx has fallen short in her bid for the Democratic nomination to to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the once Democratic stalwart of Southern Arizona who died from lung cancer in March. The 25-year-old was one of three major candidates in the Democratic primary July 15, which Adelita Grijalva, former Pima County Supervisor and daughter of the late representative, led Tuesday night. Grijalva led Foxx by 18,929 as of 11:30 p.m. ET, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's office. The Associated Press estimates that about 65% of the ballots cast have been counted and has called the race for Grijalva. Adelita Grijalva gets Dem. nom: Daughter of late Arizona congressman wins primary in bid to fill his House seat The winner of Tuesday's primary will be the favorite to head to Washington from southern Arizona, as a Democrat has held the seat since it was created following the 2000 census. Here's what you need to know about Deja Foxx. Foxx was raised in Tucson by her single mother and experienced homelessness in childhood due to her mother's struggle with substance abuse, according to her campaign website. Foxx first rose to viral prominence in 2017, when she directly challenged then-Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake at a town hall for his stance on birth control and abortion. "I'm wondering, as a Planned Parenthood patient and someone who relies on Title X, who you are clearly not, why it's your right to take away my right to choose Planned Parenthood and to choose no-copay birth control, to access that," Foxx said. "If you can explain that to me, I would appreciate it." Flake announced his retirement later that year. Foxx worked for Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential campaign and hosted the Hotties for Harris party at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, according to Politico. Foxx is one of a wave of young Democratic candidates who say they aim to remake the party that lost the White House last November. David Hogg, activist and former co-vice chair of the Democratic Party, and his political group, Leaders We Deserve, have endorsed Foxx in the primary. The two Democratic Senators from Arizona endorsed Grijalva - a move Foxx described to the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, as "putting their thumb on the scale in my race" – along with left-wing independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Foxx's stances lean to the left of the Democratic coalition, with her website stating, "housing is a human right" and calling for a $17 an hour federal minimum wage. Her previous work within the Democratic party is a contrast to Democratic Socialists of America-aligned challengers, such as Democratic nominee for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh. Foxx told the Republic that voters would be able to decide whether the political experience of Grijalva or her lived experience of relying on government programs would matter more on primary day. "She's never relied on Medicaid, or food stamps, or Section 8 housing: The things that Donald Trump has in his crosshairs,' Foxx said. 'That's a depth that I think most politicians lack … They don't know what it's like for people in D.C. to debate the things that you live on, that you need just to get by.' Foxx told the Republic earlier this month that she rejects the label of influencer. 'I think that people label me an influencer in an attempt to belittle the work that I do,' she said. "My first video that ever went viral, and the subsequent drumbeat of viral videos I've had, have had everything to do with my advocacy work on the ground." She told the newspaper that she believes it is reductive to label her as simply being an online personality. "Every save is something that has inspired someone enough that they want to come back to it … And every like is an endorsement that we are doing something different," Foxx said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Deja Foxx, the Arizona 25-year-old running for Congress
Forbes
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Arizona Special Election: Social Media Star Deja Foxx Loses To Adelita Grijalva
A popular social media influencer, Deja Foxx, lost Tuesday night's Democratic primary for the congressional seat vacated by the death of Rep. Raul Grijalva in March to the late congressman's daughter, Adelita Grijalva—who had received backing from the party's leadership and prominent progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen Bernie Sanders. Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Adelita Grijalva poses for a selfie with supporters at a ... More primary election-night party at El Casino Ballroom in South Tucson, Arizona. Getty Images The Associated Press called the race for Grijalva at around 11:20 p.m. EDT and with 65% of the votes counted she leading the social media star by more than 41 points. Foxx, a 25-year-old political content creator who has over 395,000 followers on TikTok, is running for Democratic nomination in Arizona's 7th District after only turning the minimum age to serve in Congress in April. Fifty-four-year-old former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late Rep. Raul Grijalva, was widely seen as the frontrunner in the race to replace her father, but recent internal polling from Foxx's campaign first published by Politico suggests the race is much closer—Foxx was only eight points behind Grijalva in polling done in May. Foxx was one of the youngest campaign staffers on Kamala Harris' first presidential campaign in 2020, and has continued to produce political content on liberal issues. Foxx was also chosen as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in media for her work on social media campaigns for companies including Prada and Nike, as well as her political work. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., a 22-year veteran of Congress, died in March from complications from his cancer treatment, leaving a key seat open in a swing state Trump won with 52% of the vote in 2024. Arizona's 7th district is heavily Democratic leaning, according to the Cook Political Report, meaning whoever wins Tuesday's primary will be a heavy favorite in the Sept. 23 general election. Republicans only hold a slim majority in the House and are keen to pick up any available seats. Tangent Foxx is also one of the candidates endorsed by Leaders We Deserve, the political organization founded by former Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg with the intention of winning primary elections against sitting Democrats 'unwilling or unable to meet the moment and are asleep at the wheel.' Hogg, another Gen Z political activist who rose to prominence after surviving the Parkland shooting in 2018, raised as much as $20 million for these primary campaigns, The New York Times reported in April. The organization also endorsed Zohran Mamdani, who came from behind to win the Democratic primary in the New York City mayoral election against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month. Mamdani was behind in the polls before defeating the former governor and Democratic Party mainstay by 12 points. Hogg left his DNC position after clashing with leadership over his primary efforts, and said he would not run for reelection after an internal committee voided his prior election to vice chair in June. Hogg's PAC is dedicated to 'electing young progressives,' but both Foxx and Grijalva are vying for progressive support in the primary campaign. Raul Grijalva was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and reliable supporter for liberal causes in the House. Adelita Grijalva has sought to portray herself similarly, and the candidates' policy positions are similar. Both Foxx and Grijalva have extensive policy platforms dedicated to opposing President Donald Trump's domestic agenda, expanding affordable housing and fighting for environmental justice and tribal sovereignty. Foxx's campaign also points to support for other popular left-wing causes, including Medicare for All. But Grijalva has also racked up endorsements from major progressive organizations and leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as well as both of Arizona's sitting Democratic senators, Sen. Mark Kelly and Sen. Ruben Gallego. Foxx has centered her criticism on establishment Democrats circling the wagons for establishment candidates, noting that three senior Democratic members of Congress died within the first six months of Trump's second term, handing Republicans a larger advantage.
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Adelita Grijalva wins Arizona Democratic primary for House seat
Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic House primary in Arizona to succeed her father, beating a young social media activist in a closely watched election seen as a test of the party's generational divide. Raúl Grijalva, a longtime congressman in southern Arizona, died from cancer earlier this year and left a vacancy in the state's seventh district. The younger Grijalva, a 54-year-old who served for 20 years on a Tucson school board has been a Pima county supervisor since 2020. She faced an insurgent challenger in Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and activist whose campaign focused on her personal story of using the kinds of government programs the Trump administration has attacked. Foxx also called out Grijalva for her 'legacy last name' and said political roles shouldn't be inherited. 'I'm not using my dad's last name,' Adelita Grijalva previously told the Guardian. 'It's mine, too. I've worked in this community for a very long time – 26 years at a nonprofit, 20 years on the school board, four years and four months on the board of supervisors. I've earned my last name too.' The district, which includes parts of Tucson and Arizona's borderlands, is strongly blue, meaning the winner of the primary is the likely victor of the general. But three Republicans ran in their party's primary; Daniel Butierez will face Adelita Grijalva in the general. National Democratic infighting brought extra attention to the race, with Foxx bringing up questions of seniority and nepotism. Raúl Grijalva was one of three Democratic lawmakers to die in office this year. Foxx received backing from Leaders We Deserve, David Hogg's Pac, which is challenging incumbents in Democratic primaries as it seeks to remake the party.
