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A 25-year-old social media influencer and progressive activist is hoping to follow in Zohran Mamdani’s footsteps by pulling off a stunning, come-from-behind victory in a high-profile Democratic Party congressional primary.
Deja Foxx is the youngest of the five candidates running in Tuesday’s primary in the race to fill the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, who died in March from complications related to cancer treatment.
The winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries will face off on Sept. 23 in a special election to serve the final 15 months of Grijalva’s term in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, a heavily blue district that stretches from Tucson to Yuma and includes almost the entire length of the state’s southern border with Mexico.
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA OF ARIZONA DEAD AT AGE 77
“This moment calls for more than a politician. You deserve a fighter,” Foxx said in a social media post. “This is more than a campaign. This is a movement. This is a fight for our future.”
Foxx, who went viral as a teenager for confronting then-Republican Sen. Jeff Flake over the issue of reproductive rights, enjoys the support of gun-control crusader David Hogg, who recently stepped down from his position as a Democratic National Committee vice chair after upsetting party leaders for his efforts backing primary challenges against what he called “asleep at the wheel” older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue districts.
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Hogg, who campaigned with Foxx this past weekend across the district, predicts she will “make history in Southwest Arizona.”
Additionally, he compared her surging poll numbers in the final days of the primary campaign to that of Mamdani, the 33-year-old Ugandan-born state lawmaker who topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates last month to win the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City.
Similar to the New York City mayoral primary, the contest in southern Arizona will be viewed by many political pundits as a barometer of where the Democratic Party is headed as the party deals with longstanding divisions between its establishment and outsider, and progressive and moderate wings.
The frontrunner in the race appears to be 54-year-old former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, who is the daughter of the late congressman.
She enjoys the backing of some of the state’s top Democrats, including Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, state Attorney General Kris Mayes and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Grijalva is also supported by two top progressive champions – Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York – who both backed Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary.
Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, indigenous activist and scholar Jose Malvido Jr. and former healthcare executive Patrick Harris Sr. are also running for the Democratic nomination in the majority-Hispanic district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a nearly two-to-one margin.
More than $2 million has been dished out to run ads in the Democratic primary, with some of the money coming from outside groups.
Contractor and small business owner Daniel Butierez, restaurant owner Jorge Rivas and general contractor and vehicle accessory business owner Jimmy Rodriguez are vying for the Republican congressional nomination in the district.
Polls in the district close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 10 p.m. ET, and no results will be released until an hour after the polls close.
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