Dynasties, drama and Deja

It’s the Sonoran Succession … Axon, axe off … And pick your battles, dude!

As summer temperatures set in, the race to replace the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is heating up.

Replacing Grijalva is a tall order.

The man spent more than 22 years representing Arizona in D.C., making him Arizona’s most senior member of Congress (not to mention his decades of local public service before heading to DC).

But more than that, he was a progressive icon.

Grijalva was a longtime leader of the Progressive Caucus, and he chaired the House Natural Resources Committee, which deals with environmental issues, back when Democrats held the House. He was the kind of firebrand liberal who didn’t shy away from controversy — most notably, perhaps, by calling for a boycott of his own state after lawmakers enacted SB1070 back in 2010.

His thick ‘stache, (usually tipped in tar from a pack or more a day of Marlboro Reds), gruff demeanor and tendency to hang out in dirty bars made him one of the more approachable and recognizable members of Congress.

And now he’s gone.

Meanwhile, his party is about as far “out in the wilderness,” as the cable TV pundits like to say, as it has ever been.

After their national drubbing in November, Democrats are at a juncture: Half of the party seems to think they lost because they didn’t have enough candidates like Grijalva — bold and brash in their advancement of progressive ideals. Others believe Democrats lost because they went too far in the cause, focusing on protecting rights for marginalized communities over kitchen table issues.

And who Democrats pick to fill his big, dusty dress shoes may tell us a lot about where the party base is heading.

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Five Democrats are vying to replace Grijalva.

Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 7 is heavily Democratic. It’s one of Arizona’s two “majority-minority” congressional districts, meaning 60% of its residents are Latino (and another 11% are Black, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American).

Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one, and Grijalva generally picked up about 2/3 of the vote in any given election.

In other words, the next member of Congress will be decided in the July 15 Democratic primary election. Republicans don’t stand a chance.

CD7 spans from Yuma to the western edge of the Valley to Agua Prieta, taking in Tucson, Nogales and the Tohono O’odham Nation.

And while it’s technically a five-way race, any decent political junkie will tell you that it’s really a two-way race with a third potential dark-horse candidate.

The big two are:

1. Adelita Grijalva, a former Pima County supervisor, school board president and the late congressman’s daughter, is the odds-on favorite. Like her father, she has spent a lifetime in public service — she followed in his footsteps from the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board to the Pima County Board of Supervisors and now, possibly, to Congress. She has nabbed endorsements from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, and U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, among others. And like her father, she’s named Grijalva.

2. Daniel Hernandez, a former state legislator and school board member, is the biggest threat to the Grijalva dynasty. Hernandez made his name in politics when he delivered CPR on Giffords after she was shot on his first day as her intern. But he cut his teeth in local politics by winning a seat on the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board and helping to recall two of its Grijalva-aligned members, ultimately flipping the board control and ousting its superintendent. Since then, Hernandez has started building his own political dynasty, drafting his two sisters to follow him in running for the state House.

The two families have quietly feuded for the last decade.

If they were the only two Democrats in the race, it might have shaped up to offer a nice contrast between the more progressive Grijalva, and Hernandez, who became known at the state Capitol for reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans.

That imaginary two-way race might have also served as a barometer of how Southern Arizonans feel about Grijalva’s legacy and the political machine he built, versus the new powerhouse political family in town, the “Hernandi” as they call themselves.¹

But it’s not a two-way race.²

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Enter Deja Foxx.

She’s never held public office. She’s never even run for public office. Most Southern Arizonans have never heard her name.

And yet, the moment she entered the race, a segment of voters were instantly on her side.

Foxx is a 25-year-old social media influencer.

But that’s really underselling her skillset. It is perhaps the Tucson equivalent of calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a former bartender.

Foxx became a progressive social media star at age 16 when she confronted former Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake about his vote to cut funding for Planned Parenthood.

“So I’m a young woman, and you’re a middle aged man. I’m a person of color, and you’re white. I come from poverty and I didn’t always have parents to guide me through life. You come from privilege. So I’m wondering, as a Planned Parenthood patient and someone who relies on Title X, who you are clearly not, why is your right to take away my right to choose…,” she said.

The crowd went so wild that you can’t even hear the end of her question in old videos.

When Flake shot back that he was the middle child of 11 kids and paid for college all by himself, Foxx stood her ground, delivering a more thoughtful debate than you usually see in the actual halls of Congress.

She has kept up that energy for the last nine years.

She served as a surrogate for Kamala Harris’ nascent 2020 presidential campaign (before Harris was cool). She founded her own digital community, GenZ Girl Gang. She was named one of Teen Vogue’s “21 Under 21” and Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” among many other awards for her activism and community service. She spoke at the DNC last year.³

She’s clearly going places.

But few Southern Arizona political veterans believe this will be Foxx’s year.

Instead, political game theorists speculate that she’ll pull a not-insignificant number of votes from the two main candidates.

Their big question is: Which one will she pull more votes from?

On that front, there are two lines of thinking:

• She’ll pull more from Grijalva: Because Foxx is a young progressive woman who has been more outspoken than Grijalva on some of the issues that matter most to the Democratic base.

• She’ll pull more from Hernandez: Because there’s a significant anti-Grijalva faction in Tucson and Foxx is the progressive alternative for anti-Grijalvistas.

Then again, the Democratic Party is in the wilderness, searching for its next face. In a district this progressive, voters might just be ready to take a chance on someone bold, young and untested.

It wouldn’t be the first time a 20-something woman of color started as an outsider insurgent — and wound up in Congress.

What, you thought it was over?: The battle over the Axon bill didn’t end when Gov. Katie Hobbs signed it into law last week. Actually, it got uglier, Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon reports. Axon President Josh Isner got into a social media spat with Republican Rep. Joseph Chaplik, then did the same with a Scottsdale City Council member. And Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky had some thoughts, too. While the brawl played out in Arizona, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal gave some hoity-toity kudos to lawmakers who got the bill across the finish line and exemplified the lesson that “business goes where it’s welcome.”

Still at it: Speaking of battles that never end, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie highlights the ongoing effort by Republican Sen. John Kavanagh to wage the culture wars at the Arizona Capitol. Hobbs keeps vetoing his bills. He keeps filing ‘em. This session, he’s trying to block teachers from using a student’s preferred pronouns, as well as decide which bathrooms transgender students can use. Democrats haven’t learned from the “major backlash to illegal immigration and all this wokeness,” and keep stopping his bills, Kavanagh said. So next year, he’s sending his culture war bills directly to the voters.

Speaking of Scottsdale: Scottsdale City Councilman Barry Graham made a bad choice when he pressured staff to stop a $3 million sidewalk project, but an attorney hired by the city said it didn’t cross the line into ethics violations, the Scottsdale Independent’s J. Graber reported. The final call will be made by a panel of judges on May 8.

The law and order president: The commission that helps train police departments is running out of money, now that the Trump administration cut its funding, the Republic’s Elena Santa Cruz reported. The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission gets some of its funding from the National Criminal Justice Association, which the Trump administration cut.

Luckily, we get none of our money from the Trump administration.
Unfortunately, that means we need you to pay for this newsletter, please.

MAGA manipulation: The fact that GOP gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson is pretending to be a MAGA loyalist shows she has an “authenticity problem,” Substacker Robert Robb writes, adding that if she ran as an independent, she might lose — but at least she’d be true to herself. Instead, her entire campaign seems to be based on promoting President Donald Trump’s endorsement, which she now shares with her opponent, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs.

“Keeping (that endorsement) will require her to enthusiastically endorse and publicly support every idiotic, destructive, and offensive act he commits from now until then,” Robb writes.

Cool stories, bro: U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly sat down for a Q&A with the New York Times about Elon Musk, how awesome Kelly’s Tesla was, how much Americans like cutting government spending and how Musk is definitely not in his head because he doesn’t “really care what (Musk) says about me.”

NYT: You are one of many Democrats who have decided to return their Teslas. Do you miss it?

Kelly: No, no. There’s things I liked about it, which was the performance. The thing is pretty incredible from an acceleration standpoint. It’s the closest thing I can think of to a catapult-shot off the front of the aircraft carrier. Though I was back on the U.S.S. Lincoln about a year ago, in the back of an F-18, and I realized it still is not that close. It’s fun to drive.

I repeat — we are going down: Unions and progressive organizers are heading to the Capitol today from 9 a.m. to noon for the May Day protest. Hundreds are expected to show up for the march, and similar demonstrations are happening in cities across the nation.

Check out this Twitter thread from Republican Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers.

Basically, longtime heat death tracker Stacey Champion posted a story about an 82-year-old woman who died after APS cut off her power over a $500 unpaid bill.

Then Myers jumped in unsolicited to defend the power company and trash the elderly woman.

Then the woman’s son jumped in to defend his mom.

Then Myers blamed the son for not taking care of her.

Then everyone piled on Myers.

The whole thing was pretty wild. But the wildest tweet had to be the one where Myers — whose job is to regulate Arizona’s utility companies — claims he has “no control over the situation.”

1. Hernandi, obviously, is the plural of Hernandez. The siblings even named their consulting firm “Hernandi Group, LLC.”

2. The other two Democratic candidates who have not shown they are serious contenders are Jose Malvido Jr., who hasn’t bothered to set up a campaign website as far as we can tell. You can read more about him here. And Patrick Harris Sr., a businessman whose website seems to serve mostly as promotional material for his “groundbreaking manuscript” about “Capitated Capitalism.” Though he did set up his own ChatGPT where you can ask questions about his theory.

3. Hank first met Foxx when he was covering the Tucson schools beat for the Arizona Daily Star. She was a student and they spoke once. Hank has been receiving emails from Foxx’s personal press list ever since — which automatically makes her more competent than half of the PR people in this state who earn six-figure salaries.