It is the summer of hot elections, at least according to the young Democrats who are organizing behind the youth and progressive candidates in a series of primaries outside the year and summer.
First was Zohran Mamdani, the 33 -year -old state legislator who won the primary Democrats of New York on former governor Andrew Cuomo. Now, a special choice for a vacancy in Congress in southern Arizona is caughting attention in part due to the campaign of a young Democrat.
After the representative Raúl Grijalva died in March at age 77, Leave Foxx, 25, is gaining ground in the special Democratic primaries in the 7th District of Arizona, and is being executed in a message of generational change and hoping to take advantage of the support of his almost 400,000 followers of Tiktok and 240,000 Instagram followers to win. But it does not have a clear path against the former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late congressman and former state representative Daniel Hernández.
Grijalva, in particular, with his supports of Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT., And the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dn.y., does not give Foxx the same ideological opening that Mamdani exploded in New York. Grijalva’s father not only served the district in Congress for more than 20 years, but Hernández also has brothers who serve in the State Chamber.
Even so, the race has become part of a broader national conversation among Democrats about the ages of the elected leaders of their party and the desire for a generational change.
‘We need to give young a real leadership’
In an interview last week, Foxx acknowledged that his age has played a role in his campaign messages and the support he has obtained from young people throughout the country.
“We have lost ground with young people as part for the first time in decades … and it is not enough to put our members of Congress in Tiktok, correct or inform them about trends or put mini-Mics on their face. We need young people a real leadership,” Foxx said.
“It is what people in this match say in each collection of Tocón. They say that we need newer and younger leaders, a new generation of leadership, and yet, when an open and increasingly new seat appears comes with a decade of defense experience and progressive policies, we have seen people put their thumb on the scale and choose the most predictable option,” he added.
Age has been a point of sale for Foxx with little daylight between her and Grijalva on the issues. Both are identified as progressive, and the 7th Arizona district is very democratic. Whoever wins the Democratic primary on Tuesday is likely to win the general special elections of September to represent a section from Tucson South to the border between the United States and Mexico.
But Grijalva emphasized in an interview this month that the experience should import more than age, dismissing the suggestions that it is too old for work at 54, which makes it less than more than half of the voting members in the camera, according to the analysis of the Pew Research Center.
“Respectfully, I’m not old,” he said.
“It is frustrating for me how the experience looks as a negative,” he said later in the interview, and added: “I am a little surprised that in a Democratic primary, in a party that should really be working to inform people and not spread the wrong information, that was not something for which I was prepared.”
Grijalva’s experience has been worth in the form of local and national connections. In addition to Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, he has also accumulated the support of the Democratic Senators of Arizona, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly; Former representative Gabrielle Giffords and her Pro-Armas control group, Giffords PAC; and the Emily list and the conservation voters league.
“This race, the people who have decided to be solidarity and backed, those are endorsed that I have earned,” Grijalva said.
Foxx has won the support of former vice president of the National Democratic Committee David Hogg and his group promoting the generational change in democratic primaries, leaders we deserve. He did not directly go to the national figures that supported Grijalva, but pointed out the presence of the late Father of Grijalva in Washington as a reason for support.
“The seventh district of Congress is one of Arizona’s youngest districts. It is also largely working class,” said Foxx. “It is fair to say that there are people in this race who have advantages that people like us would never have.”
“I do not think it is unfair or even antagonistic to point out the advantages that a candidate could have over another in this race, especially the inherited advantages,” he added.
Grijalva rejected Foxx’s criticism, saying that his position “is making it look part of an establishment, when the National Democratic Party has not helped me in this race.”
“We are not like bushes or the Rockefellers,” he said. “Literally I live on the southern side of the city and I have lived there all my life.”
Hernández, 35, did not mention Grijalva by name, but said he has been listening to voters who favor choosing a new leadership generation.
“Recently, people speak more and more that they want a new type of leadership. What we saw in New York was not necessarily an ideological struggle, but rather a generational struggle and a fight around the establishment,” Hernández said in an interview last week. “And I think there have been many concerns around, you know, ‘Are the people we have had in power, who have put us in this disaster, the same ones we trust to get us?'”
Hernández, who has been the main fund collector in the race, said that problem number 1 on which he has heard of voters in the district is affordability: one of the main points that Mamdani seized so effectively in his campaign in New York, and some of his supporters feel that other democratic candidates did not focus enough on the subject.
“The most important things that continue to upload are the same things that arose in March when I launched my campaign, which is what you are going to try to reduce the cost of living, and what are you going to do to protect Medicare and Medicaid,” he said.
A debate about ‘experience’
Kyle Nitschke, 28, who runs the Arizona Student Association, an organization with a strong presence in university campuses throughout the state, said: “A big difference between New York City race and this career is that it leaves does not have a cuomo to go and attack.” Nitschke pointed out Cuomo’s resignation as Governor of New York in 2021 after having faced accusations of sexual harassment.
Nitschke believes that Foxx’s description of Grijalva as a “establishment” figure does not resonate with young voters in the district. “I would like they attacked a little less for not being progressive, because both are incredible and incredible progressive candidates,” Nitschke said.
The name of Grijalva has long taken the weight of the legacy of its late father, but it has been reinforced by its own experience in the state, including time at the Pima County Supervisors Board and the Governing Board of the Unified School District of Tucson.
“He is not seen as someone who only bears a name alone in the name. He is also seen as someone who acts with his father’s footsteps,” said Dawn Penich, a Arizona Democratic political consultant.
Grijalva said: “My dad left huge shoes to fill, but I stop at my own feet, and I have more than two decades of public service in Arizona, and that is not, that is not a politician, it is a public servant.”
Foxx, less than half of Grijalva’s age, has had a much shorter time in the political care center. She was a vocal defender of abortion rights in the 2024 presidential election cycle, when the Arizonans approved an amendment that raised the rights of abortion in the State Constitution. She organized community events with celebrities such as Jodie Foster and Chrissy Teigen to disseminate consciousness about the initiative, which presented much of the State.
Now, Foxx has leaned strongly on social networks to overcome his campaign.
Nitschke said that “literally every time I move through my Instagram stories,” you will see the Foxx content.
Penich said Foxx’s strategy could pay dividends into future elections, even if not, this year.
“The basis that is building and the people with whom they are having that organic connection are probably closer to their generation and their age group that where the majority of the voting population is,” he said.
“For all people, including myself, saying: ‘Leave is an impressive woman, but this is not his race, this is not his time’ … he put on the radars of many people, he has shown that it can be a powerful presence,” he said.
“Sometimes you lose a career, but you have gained a lot of balance for the next one you want to do.”
