So, I’m just going to say ahead of time, don’t expect me to have one of these out every week since I still do game reviews and shit like that, but there’s been a sudden development in one of the races that I covered. In the last piece, I discussed the Arizona Special Election for Congressional District 7, and framed it as a race between Adelita Grijalva, daughter of the now deceased incumbent Raul Grijalva, and right wing DINO Daniel Hernandez. In this section, I failed to mention the candidacy of Deja Foxx, a Gen Z activist who, by every metric, is a better progressive than Adelita Grijalva, because I did not believe she had a shot at winning, and I didn’t want to risk Hernandez winning due to the spoiler effect.
A recent poll by Deja Foxx’s campaign shows her 35% with Grijalva at 43%, putting Foxx within single digits of the front runner. This is an increase of 25 points from a similar poll in May that had her at only 10%, which indicates that momentum is on Foxx’s side two weeks before the election, with most of her support coming from younger voters who don’t normally turn out in elections. Does this sound familiar to any of you?
As if this was not enough, Deja Foxx was also just endorsed by Leaders We Deserve, a PAC co-run by former DNC co-vice chair David Hogg, who resigned due to his progressive views conflicting with leadership. This means that there will likely be even more energy behind Deja Foxx’s campaign, meaning we could be witnessing yet another progressive upstart, only this time, establishment Dems won’t have the excuse of “it was a candidate with a lot of baggage.”
But that begs the question, “why is it important to support Deja Foxx when Adelita Grijalva is already a progressive?” My response to this would be that, while Grijalva would be a better incumbent then most Congressional Democrats, she’s also not going to govern any differently than her father would, and her father has held elected office for over three decades. This means that, while Grijalva would be a reliable vote on progressive issues, she’s unlikely to challenge leadership all that much, and we are in desperate need of progressive Dems who are willing to do that.
There’s also the elephant in the room that Adelita just inheriting her father’s seat would be blatant nepotism, and while I’d look past it if the alternative is someone like Daniel Hernandez, that’s no longer the case now that someone who better embodies progressive principles can pose a serious challenge to her. Not to mention that Adelita may actually be a step down from her father when it comes to Israel, if her recent debate performance is any indication.
On top of all this, it’s just clear based on Deja Foxx’s history that she’s a fighter, and that she’ll be far more likely to hold both Republicans and establishment Democrats feet to the fire. For fucks sake, she grilled former US Senator Jeff Flake over defunding Planned Parenthood, when she was only 16. She was also arrested for protesting abortion rights in 2022, and in her own words, she’d do it again. To put it bluntly, we need more people like Deja Foxx in congress.
Deja Foxx – Donation Link
We still have two weeks for Deja Foxx to catch up to Grijalva in the polls, and we’ve seen how fast momentum can move. While Grijalva would be far from the the worst incumbent in the Democratic party, this shouldn’t stop us from pushing for the best, especially at a time like this.
Update: There’s been some pushback to the idea of Deja Foxx being the nominee, and thus far, all of it has been stupid. Allow me to respond to some of the usual talking points.
“She doesn’t support Palestine”
She’s literally been better on this issue than Grijalva has, as I have talked about earlier. People have not done their research if they are saying this.
“She supported Kamala Harris in 2019″
You mean when she was 19? This line of attack may work with regards to establishment politicians who have been in office for decades, but a 19 year old buying into the hype of the Harris campaign is not outside the realm of possibility, and this is little more than inane purity testing. Just think of how many people have been radicalized in the past 5 years.
“Her only attack against Grijalva is her father”
That, and her being weaker on Israel than her father, but it’s amazing to try and act as if nepotism isn’t a serious issue in US politics just because the person benefiting it is a progressive.
“She reminds me of Sinema”
This one is so shallow, it borders on outright misogyny. The similarities in question is that Deja Foxx is young, pretty, and likes fashion. They just so happen to be things that misogynists always fixate on.
“Bernie and AOC endorsed Grijalva”
Bernie Sanders also endorsed Johnathon Jackson instead of Jacqueline Collins in 2022, despite Jackson being a crypto sellout. Sometimes, endorsements are made based out of obligations to one’s allies in the administration. Bernie has had some pretty dumb takes when it came to endorsements, such as choosing not to endorse Ed Markey in 2020, or Marie Newman in 2022.
–
If you would like to support me or this site, then please pledge to my Fanbox or make a donation to my Cashapp ($AnniegaIIa) or Venmo if you would like to see higher quality content with more resources to put towards it. If you don’t want to spend any money on me, then you can also help by sharing my blog on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, or anywhere else where others will see it. You can also follow this blog if you would like to be kept up to date on my stuff.