Arizona Special Election Victory Narrows GOP House Majority
Adelita Grijalva’s Special Election Victory Narrows GOP House Majority
The GOP’s control of the House weakened on Tuesday after Democrat Adelita Grijalva won the special election for the seat representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
According to the Washington Post, Adelita Grijalva was favored to beat Republican Daniel Butierez after raising significantly more money in the race. Grijalva is a former Pima County supervisor and member of the Tucson school board. The special election was held after Grijalva’s father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, died in March from complications during cancer treatment. Adelita Grijalva will serve the remaining 15 months of his term.
“My dad left huge shoes to fill, but I stand on my own two feet,” Grijalva told NBC News in July. Grijalva campaigned on increasing affordable housing, expanding welfare programs, and pushing back against President Donald Trump’s economic agenda. Adelita Grijalva will join the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where her father served as co-chairman from 2009 to 2019.
Adelita Grijalva’s election narrows the GOP’s House majority to 219-214, meaning Republicans can only lose two votes and still pass legislation. Grijalva’s election comes after Democrat James Walkinshaw won a special election in Virginia, and ahead of two more special elections in Texas to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) and former Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who resigned on Jul. 20 for a job in the private sector. Turner’s seat is in a historically Democratic district, while Green’s is overwhelmingly Republican.
In the immediate future, Grijalva’s election could disrupt House Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to halt the release of the Epstein files. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are collecting signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release all unclassified files related to its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.
A discharge petition brings a bill to the House floor when the speaker refuses to do so. The petition is currently only one signature shy of forcing the vote, with all 213 House Democrats and four Republicans having signed it. Additionally, the likelihood of a government shutdown is increasing as Republicans don’t have the votes necessary to unilaterally pass a government spending bill.
The GOP’s narrow majority in the House has been a cause of concern for the Trump administration. President Donald Trump triggered a nationwide redistricting battle in July after requesting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott begin an unusual, mid-decade redistricting effort to give Republicans more seats during the 2026 midterms.
Gov. Abbott complied and used the Kerr County floods as cover to call a special legislative session focused on redistricting. While Texas Democrats filibustered, left the state to break quorum, and at one point were held political prisoners in the Texas House after returning to the state, the Texas state legislature ultimately passed a new congressional map giving Republicans five new seats in districts Trump won by double digits in 2024.
Trump has also called on Florida and Indiana to begin redistricting efforts, and Missouri recently passed a new congressional map that potentially adds 1 new House seat. House Democrats met with former Attorney General Eric Holder to strategize how to combat this blatant gerrymandering attempt by the GOP. In August, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the “Election Rigging Response Act” to counter Texas’ redistricting effort.
A special election will be held in California on Nov. 4, where voters will decide whether control of the state’s congressional maps will stay with an independent redistricting committee or temporarily shift to state legislators for the next five years. If voters agree to place control of the maps in the hands of the state legislature, Gov. Newsom intends to implement a new map that would directly neutralize the gains made in Texas.
Adelita Grijalva’s election is a small yet notable step in potentially neutralizing whatever gains the GOP may receive in their effort to gerrymander the midterms.
Adelita Grijalva’s Special Election Victory Narrows GOP House Majority was originally published on newsone.com
