Political notebook: Young candidate Foxx wants to shake up Dem politics

If you’ve paid attention to the Democrats’ race in Congressional District 7, you probably know the stories Deja Foxx tells.

She tells them well — and often. That’s the way you get people to remember.

She grew up in a poor family in Tucson, moved out to live with her boyfriend’s family as a teen, worked in a gas station and got involved in politics.

As a 16-year-old University High School student, she worked to get a new sex education curriculum passed in Tucson Unified School District.

She confronted then-Sen. Jeff Flake at a town hall in 2017 defending Planned Parenthood, leading to a viral video moment.

And then she graduated and headed off to attend Columbia University, a first-generation college student headed straight to the Ivy League.

Now she’s running in a crowded group of progressives trying to replace Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died while holding office in March.

But Foxx is still barely 25, and what she’s done since college is refine her skills as a progressive digital expert and social-media influencer. Not things that most traditional Tucson Democrats may be impressed by.

Except, they might be, if they hear her play out the long version of the argument for her candidacy, as she did in an interview May 29. She noted that the voters agree with Democrats on lots of issues — not just reproductive rights, but healthcare reform more broadly, for example. And yet they’ve continued to lose important elections.

“I think it’s because we have some of the wrong messengers,” Foxx said. “Frankly, we’re not platforming the right people. We continue to have a process of selection politics that does not bring forth our strongest fighters, our best champions and our best storytellers.”

“And what I add to this race is a unique ability to reach people through great storytelling that performs online, in new media, social media spaces where we are losing,” she said. “I mean, it’s not an opinion that we’re losing online. It is a fact that we are losing online, and it is where the majority of young people are getting their information, but it’s where everybody is headed, as it stands, to get their news, to build their political opinions.”

She pointed to U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a New York Democrat) and Jasmine Crockett (a Texas Democrat) as examples of communicators she respects. And she argued that Democrats have not put strong enough fighters in office, deferring instead to traditions of seniority.

She noted that the sprawling “Big Beautiful Bill,” which slashes spending on social services that her own family has depended on, passed by just one vote and wouldn’t have if all the elected Democrats were there. In fact, the congressman she’s running to replace, Rep. Raul Grijalva, died in March while holding office.

“We have now lost three members of the Democratic Party in the past few months alone,” she noted. “We have a real age problem we need to have a conversation about.”

When asked about Foxx, Adelita Grijalva’s campaign had a 21-year-old campaign volunteer respond.

Eddie Barron noted that “The movement that the Grijalva family has created has always been about believing in the promise and potential of young people.”

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“I like Deja Foxx, I like the fire that she brings,” Barron said. “I think there’s a difference between online followers across the country, some of the national attention that she’s garnering, and in-district community support from neighbors and folks who are on the ground doing the work.”

The other Democratic candidates in the heavily Democratic district are: Daniel Hernandez Jr., Patrick Harris Sr., and Jose Malvido Jr.

Supervisors oppose border militarization

The Pima County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday opposing the “Ongoing Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border” by a 4-1 vote.

Supervisor Jen Allen, whose District 3 shares more than 130 miles of border with Mexico, requested the item for Tuesday’s meeting. Supervisor Steve Christy voted against the resolution.

“The threats to our conservation lands and some of our beautiful spaces is just one that I feel like we need to stand up against, and that is exactly what this resolution does,” Allen said.

In a statement to the Board, Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon M. Jose said the Nation is “focused on building bridges ... not walls.”

“The notion that additional border walls or militarization is needed or warranted, makes no sense. Spending billions of dollars that would further desecrate sacred areas and further split our people, makes no sense,” Jose wrote. “Wasting billions of dollars on a problem that does not exist is wrong, particularly when the federal government is actively attempting to make massive cuts to critical programs for our children, elders and many others.”

In March, the Trump administration began considering a plan to establish a military installation along the border, initially in New Mexico.

The resolution passed Tuesday opposes the Roosevelt Reservation lands transferring from the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense, “the inclusion of $46.5 billion in the House Reconciliation budget for building additional harmful and unnecessary border walls” as well as the construction of a border wall across the San Rafael Valley.

It authorizes Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher and the county’s federal lobbyists “to communicate Pima County’s opposition to these and other efforts to increase militarization across the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Riel drops out

The race for the Democratic nomination in Tucson’s Ward 6 is down to three candidates after Theresa Riel dropped out.

Riel, a member of the Pima Community College board, entered the race with the understanding that she could hold both seats, if she were to win the Tucson City Council seat. However, Tucson’s city attorney told her that she would have to quit the Pima board if she were to win the council seat, Riel said.

So she chose to stick with the seat she already holds, which she won in 2022. That term lasts until December 2028.

The remaining Democratic candidates in Ward 6 are: Leighton Rockafellow Jr., Miranda Schubert and James Sinex. Republican candidate Jay Tolkoff faces no primary competition.