The candidate trying to unseat Democratic incumbent RaΓΊl Grijalva is the first to admit he is facing an uphill slog in the Congressional District 3 race.
Republican Daniel Wood has no political experience and virtually no name recognition since he doesnβt live in the district. And he has almost no money to fund his campaign.
He also is a staunch supporter of President Trump in a district where the president isnβt especially popular.
And, at a time of extreme concern over public health, Wood has been promoting a coronavirus conspiracy theory video that now is blocked by many social media sites for spreading misinformation about the pandemic.
Wood, 42, has little chance of winning, according to national organizations that rate the likelihood of electoral upsets.
But the war veteran and ex-police officer who now works as an executive bodyguard says heβs on a mission to prove the doubters wrong.
βItβs David versus Goliath,β Wood says, referring to the biblical battle in which a young boy triumphs by killing a giant with a slingshot.
The conservative Christian says he was inspired by God to run against Grijalva despite the odds.
βI truly feel like the Lord has called me,β said Wood, a Georgia native who served as a Marine, repairing electrical equipment for an amphibious assault unit in the Iraq War in 2003.
After leaving the service, he worked as a police officer, then moved to Arizona five years ago. He and his wife and three children in Maricopa, a city of 52,000 in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Federal candidates are not required to live in a district in order to run there.
Woodβs top concerns if elected reflect those of the president.
He says he plans to focus first on deregulation of business and industry, lowering taxes and improving U.S.-Mexico border security.
He supports the presidentβs border wall, claiming it has reduced crime βbetween 86% and 96%,β in communities where sections of the wall exist β a claim that is not supported by the limited academic research that exists.
Until recently, Woodβs personal Facebook page including a link to a coronavirus video heavily promoted by QAnon, a pro-Trump, far-right fringe movement that portrays Democrats as child-molesting cannibals.
The video says the virus was a planned attack on America, and that it is not as deadly as U.S. authorities claim, statements that caused Facebook, Instagram and others to block the content.
βI do think COVID-19 is real, but itβs not as bad as theyβre saying,β Wood explains, accusing social media sites of βcensorship.β
Wood has raised about $6,200, mainly in small donations, with most of it already spent, according to his most recent campaign filing.
17 years in office
By comparison, Grijalva has raised about 100 times that amount β more than $600,000 at last report.
Some of the largest donations have come from tribal casinos and from unions representing teachers, hospitality workers and food workers.
Grijalva says heβs counting on voters who have supported him for the past 18 years to return him to Washington again at a critical juncture in U.S. history.
βRepercussions from the pandemic are going to push Congress to look at how we stabilize and rebuild,β said Grijalva, 72, who has represented the 3rd District, and its predecessor district, since 2003.
The effort will be challenging, he said, because βmerely putting things back the way they were is not going to work.β
Grijalva, who holds a bachelorβs degree in sociology from the University of Arizona, has nearly a half-century of political experience.
He started out in 1974 as a Tucson Unified School District trustee, then served 15 years as a Pima County supervisor before seeking federal office.
A senior statesman in the national Democratic Party, Grijalva is chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group comprising the most left-leaning members of Congress including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City and the late civil-rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
Since 2019, Grijalva has been chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, a career highlight. Among other things, his committee oversees the energy and mining industries, fisheries, wildlife conservation, water supplies and regulations affecting tribal governments and U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico.
He also is a senior member of the house education committee.
Shortly after he was last elected in 2018, Grijalva was publicly accused of drunkenness by a former Trump Cabinet secretary who was under investigation for alleged self-dealing.
The congressman has publicly acknowledged abusing alcohol in the past but says he has conquered the problem, according to a 2018 story in the Washington Post.
Grijalva, who tested positive for coronavirus a few months ago but was not hospitalized, says if reelected, he will focus first on efforts to control the pandemic and restore the U.S. economy.
βMy politics are reality-based. Iβm not chasing conspiracy theories,β he says.
He favors increased spending on public education and public health and says he will work to combat climate change, improve income inequality and protect the Grand Canyon from proposed uranium mining.
The election is Nov. 3.
