Adelita Grijalva was projected to win a special election for the congressional seat formerly held by her late father Raul Grijalva by a landslide, adding a crucial Democratic vote to a chamber divided by a razor-thin margin.
Adelita Grijalva beat Republican Daniel Butierez with 70% of the vote, compared to Butierez’s 27.5%, to represent Arizona’s 7th congressional district. Butierez last ran for the seat in 2024 against Raul Grivalva losing by 26 points.
“We made history — juntos,” Grijalva posted to X after the race was called. “Now, let’s get to work!”
The win against Butierez will likely give Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna the final signature on their discharge petition to force a vote on bipartisan legislation to release all documents related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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The 217th vote came earlier this month when Rep. James Walkinshaw won another special election in Virginia to fill the seat formerly held by the late Gerry Connolly. The freshman previously served as Connolly’s Chief of Staff.
Signing the discharge petition was one of Walkinshaw’s first official signatures.
“The discharge petition in the House ... is really the only mechanism to circumvent that ironclad control that Donald Trump has over my Republican colleagues,” Walkinshaw told Politico after signing.
For the last five years Grijalva has served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She first started working in public in 2002 when she joined the Tucson Unified School District’s Governing Board, where she remained until joining the county board in 2020.
Grijalva’s win makes her the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress, bumping Latina representation in Congress to an all-time high, according to a study by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Grijalva is the 20th Latina in Congress, including 18 representatives and one senator, according to the Center on Women in Politics, compared to nearly 20 years ago when Congress only had seven Latina congressmembers.
The late Raul Grijalva represented Arizona’s 7th congressional district for more than 20 years until he died from complications of cancer treatment on March 13. A staunch advocate for environmental law, Grijalva chaired the House Natural Resources Committee and was chosen to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus in 2008.
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