EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – For the second time in less than a year, Arizona business owner Dan Butierez will be facing a member of the Grijalva family in a U.S. congressional election.
Butierez held a 2-1 lead over Jorge Rivas, his closest competitor, in Tuesday’s GOP special 7th Congressional District election in Arizona, with 29 percent of the ballots still to count.
The state’s Department of State scheduled the special election after U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., died on March 13 following a battle with lung cancer. He represented most of southern Arizona in Congress for 22 years.
Butierez on Tuesday night told supporters he sees a community divided along party lines and offered to “bring everyone together,” KVOA reported.
Butierez lost the Nov. 5, 2024, District 7 congressional election to Grijalva by more than 72,000 votes. Now he’ll be going up against Grijalva’s daughter in the Sept. 23, 2025, special election.
Adelita Grijalva on Wednesday morning led four others by a wide margin in the Democratic special election with 77 percent of votes counted. They include social media influencer Deja Foxx, who worked for Kamala Harris during her 2020 presidential bid and lists herself as founder of the GenZ Girl Gang community empowerment organization.
Adelita Grijalva served in the Pima County Board of Supervisors and was director of the Pima County Teen Court. She was endorsed in this race by prominent national progressive politicians, including U.S. Rep. Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
The district historically leans Democratic, and Harris won it by almost 23 points last November, though Donald Trump won the state of Arizona.
The Green Party of Arizona had two write-in candidates.
On Wednesday, candidate Gary Swing congratulated Eduardo Quintana for reportedly winning the primary.
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