The three candidates vying for the Republican nomination at the end of the month in the Congressional District 3 primary all smell blood in the water.
GOP candidates Edna San Miguel, Sergio Arellano and Nicolas โNickโ Pierson all say that Democrat incumbent Rep. Raรบl Grijalva of Tucson is vulnerable in the era of President Trump.
Pointing to a scandal that had Grijalva paying a $48,395 severance package to an employee, the trio say that the heavily Democratic congressional district is ready for a change.
Some local Democrats quietly acknowledge that CD3 has fallen behind when it comes to registering new voters, and turnout on Election Day in 2016 โ when Grijalva had no formal competition โ was lackluster.
Arellano, an Army veteran wounded in Iraq, said he got involved in Southern Arizona political campaigns after working on various veterans issues.
He says a group of veterans encouraged him to take on Grijalva last fall, shortly after the scandal came to light.
Arellano prefers to call himself an independent, saying that while he supports the Trump administration, his priority is to the district, not Washington, D.C.
โAs long as our policies are helping on the ground, I can support (Trump),โ Arellano said.
But he cites family separations at the border as an example of when he will criticize his own party.
โFamilies should be kept together, no matter what,โ he said.
Jobs are one of Arellanoโs top priorities , and he says he wants to help to build new industries as well as help local businesses grow.
โThere are no flippinโ jobs in CD3,โ Arellano notes, saying he wants to help small-business owners. โThe things in our area are so bad.โ
San Miguel, who says she can trace her family back to Tucson since the 1800s, is a hard-liner on any form of immigration amnesty.
โNo amnesty, no chain migration, no sanctuary cities, and no more 60+ thousand HB2 working visas per year for foreigners, until further notice from our D.C. administration,โ San Miguel says on her campaign website. โAmnesty only encourages and rewards breaking our state, city and federal laws, while costing American taxpayers billions of wasted tax dollars.โ
The focus of her campaign, she says, is securing the border.
โNational security is the utmost importance right now,โ San Miguel said. โAs Arizonaโs congresswoman, I want to represent Arizona, not Mexico.โ
This includes building โthe wall,โ as frequently discussed by Trump.
โDefinitely that wall has to go up,โ San Miguel told the Arizona Daily Star.
Sanctuary cities are also a problem, which she says also includes the city of Tucson, although the city has rejected the label.
Tucson has been an โimmigrant-welcoming cityโ since 2012 and does not have any policies or regulations that prohibit or limit the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Pierson, a Southern Arizona native who grew up on the Tohono Oโodham and the White Mountain Apache Indian reservations, said his focus is on jobs.
โThe parents want to see opportunities for their children and stay here, but there arenโt many opportunities,โ Pierson said.
Most importantly, Pierson said, is that the largely rural district needs help changing the political environment to foster new job growth.
The president, he said, has done a lot to ease economic conditions to help companies create new investments.
โI am happy with the policies that heโs come up with, and the economy is doing better,โ Pierson said.
A lifelong Republican, Pierson said the Southern Arizona economy suffered after the election of Barack Obama in 2012.
But Pierson concedes, he wishes Trump would adopt a โslightly different toneโ when he communicates with the public.
Adam Kinsey, a political consultant with Saguaro Strategies, says Grijalva is an easy target for Republicans โ not to defeat, but for raising money.
โHe is very vocal, very popular figure particularly popular among progressives,โ he said.
โThey use him as a bogeyman.โ
But with a substantial advantage concerning Democrat registration over Republicans in a district that spans from Yuma to downtown Tucson, he said the three Republican candidates donโt have a clear shot of winning.
โIt is an exercise of futility,โ he said.
