Progressive influencer Deja Foxx suffered a stunning defeat in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, losing by more than 40 points to Adelita Grijalva. The Associated Press called the race for 54-year-old Grijalva, a Pima County Supervisor and daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who secured 62% of the vote. Foxx, a 25-year-old digital personality with nearly 400,000 TikTok followers, earned just 21%. Her campaign, built on her “lived experience” of growing up in Section 8 housing and early activism for abortion access, failed to overcome Grijalva’s deep local roots, name recognition, and strong party backing, including endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.
Foxx raised over $670,000, mostly from small-dollar donors, and relied heavily on social media outreach. Despite this, voters favored the familiar name. Both candidates supported similar progressive policies—Medicare for All, tribal sovereignty, environmental justice, and opposition to Donald Trump—but Grijalva’s decades of local work proved decisive. In her victory speech, she honored her father’s legacy, saying, “This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago.”
Meanwhile, progressives are eyeing primary challenges against House Democrats in New York City following the shock victory of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist assemblyman from Queens, over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary. Mamdani’s win, signaling the rise of far-left influence in the city, has energized the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is reportedly considering primary challenges against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other New York Democrats, including Reps. Ritchie Torres, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Yvette Clarke. A senior advisor to Jeffries has promised a “forceful and unrelenting” response to any such challenges, highlighting the potential national implications of these intra-party contests.
