U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva speaking with supporters of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren at a town hall at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Ariz., on Aug. 1, 2019.
Democratic incumbent Raul Grijalva will likely see a 12th term in Congress representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
Numbers early Wednesday morning show Grijavla leading 32% above his Republican challenger Daniel Butierez.
Grijalva announced late in the campaign that this would be his last term. He’s spent the greater part of this year battling lung cancer.
However, he told AZPM he wanted to continue the immigration reform efforts currently at a standstill in Congress after two bipartisan bills failed to pass.
“This Republican Congress has said no to DACA. It has said no to any step toward any limited immigration reform,” Grijalva said. “It is the first effort that, in the 20 years I've been there, to try to reach a compromise. And so my strategy now is, let's get what we can get, and let's try to move this ball forward.”
Butierez ran on a MAGA-forward platform. A contractor and small-business owner, he spent almost 10 years in prison and two years living on the streets, which he said shaped his views on the housing crisis and drug policy.
He said after getting a job while incarcerated, he was able to turn his life around, and says implementing large-scale work programs for the homeless population will create a similar “mindset shift.”
“Our society has no accountability. No one's held accountable for their actions,” he said.
His other policies included continuing to build Donald Trump’s border wall.
On the other side, Grijalva called the border wall “the stupidest thing we could do.”
With two more years secured, the question in the background of Grijalva’s last term will be who will follow his two decade Congressional legacy.
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