Adelita Grijalva Makes History With Special Election Victory For Her Late Dad’s Congressional Seat
Adelita Grijalva won a special election for Arizona’s 7th congressional district. She is going to be filling the seat in Congress left vacant after her father died in March 2025. She will serve out the remaining 15 months of late Representative Rául Grijalva’s term after he died due to complications from cancer treatment. Her win is a crucial victory for Democrats in the House.
Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva won her special election in Arizona
Voters in Arizona delivered Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva a decisive victory over her Republican opponent. Following in the footsteps of her late father, Rep.-elect Grijalva will represent the constituents of Arizona’s 7th congressional district. Her victory increased the margin compared to her father, a common trend among special elections showing gains for Democrats.
At the time of this writing, Rep.-elect Grijalva won with 68.6 percent compared to Daniel Butierez’s 29.8 percent, with 87.2 percent of votes counted. Her father won the seat in a re-election on Nov. 5, 2024, with 63.4 percent of the vote. Republican Butierez confirmed that he would sign the discharge petition in an interview before the election with the Arizona Daily Star.
Kamala Harris outperformed President Donald Trump by more than 20 points in the Tucson area, even though both Rep.-elect Grijalva and her father received higher levels of support. Last night’s election is an almost 40-point victory for Rep.-elect Grijalva. The election results signal a tightening of the Republican Party’s slim majority in the House, which is now 219-214.
The election is also historic because it is the first time Arizona is sending a Latina to Congress, where Latino representation is still behind in terms of population. Currently, Latinos make up a little more than 10 percent in Congress compared to being 20 percent of the United States population.
“It’s very humbling. It is a huge honor and a huge responsibility,” Rep.-elect Grijalva told The 19th News. “I want people to see me in these positions and say, ‘If she can do it, I can do it’ and push for change in their own communities.”
Her election is a crucial part of Congress’s plan to release the Epstein files
The electoral win comes at a crucial point in Congress’s push to compel the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. A discharge petition introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-4) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) has 217 signatures currently. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva has already promised to be the 218th signature on the petition.
The 218 signature threshold allows for the petition to force a vote on the House floor. Once sworn in, Rep.-elect Grijalva will be able to sign the petition, and the next phase of Congress’s plan to release the Epstein files begins.
The bipartisan discharge petition has prominent support from both political parties. Notably, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14), Nancy Mace (R-SC-1), and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13). The bipartisan support for the release of the Epstein files mirrors the sentiment from the American public. According to The Washington Post/Schar School poll from July, 86 percent of people asked supported the full release of the Epstein files.
