From TUSD to DC

Grijalva looks to fill seat .. CD7 debate highlights .. And that is one sexy cactus.

As the daughter of a politician, Adelita Grijalva grew up with politics woven into her childhood.

A proud graduate of Pueblo High School, Grijalva didn’t consider running for office herself until she was 29, when she eyed a seat on the Tucson Unified School District board — an unpaid elected position she went on to hold for more than 20 years.

The seed was planted years earlier by her father.

“He's famous for these little doodles, and on my high school graduation card he wrote, ‘Adelita Grijalva for TUSD,’” she recalled. “He put the bug in there before I had any interest in doing any of that.”

It was her work with Pima County’s Teen Court program that ultimately pushed her into the race. After working closely with local schools, she told Tucson Agenda she wanted to see more alternatives to suspensions and detentions for kids struggling in school.

But her entry into politics wasn’t exactly warm.

“When I ran for school board, one of the sitting board members said, ‘I don’t want the girl on the board at this time,’” she said.

Grijalva almost left politics five years ago, telling friends and family she wasn’t going to run again for the school board. But when Pima County Supervisor Richard Elías died suddenly in 2020, his family asked her to run. She agreed — though gathering signatures during a pandemic was no easy feat.

Running for her father's old seat in Congress is a true full-circle moment. He started his political career on the TUSD school board, moved on to the Pima County Board of Supervisors before winning a seat in Congress — the exact path the younger Grijalva hopes to take, assuming voters will allow her.

She said her decision to run for his seat isn't about ambition or family pride — it's about fear of what Trump-era policies are doing to Southern Arizona.

“I’m running to protect our public schools. I’m running to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — and to give people in our community a voice because so many feel like it's being snuffed out. Our immigrant communities, our LGBTQ communities, our environmental communities, Indigenous communities — there are just so many being marginalized and pushed out.”

Still, she knows that in many ways she is defined by her last name.

“I’m a proud daughter of Raúl Grijalva — always have been, always will be. But I’ve been in elected office for 22 years, 20 of those on a volunteer school board. Nothing was handed to me. Respectfully, the bar has always been set incredibly high because of who my dad is. And that comparison is tough — because he’s amazing.”

Asked about the House-passed “big, beautiful bill,” she pointed to Medicaid — and what cuts could mean for southern Arizona.

“Seventy percent of people in CD7 are on Medicaid. Our schools rely on it to provide services like physical therapy, speech therapy, counseling, and other supports for students with special needs,” she said.

On environmental protection, Grijalva highlighted one of her final votes as a county supervisor: preserving 109 acres of undeveloped land at Kelly Ranch.

“That was one of my last votes on April 4 — to acquire and permanently protect Kelly Ranch. It was a full-circle moment. My dad was the deciding ‘no’ vote against developing that land years ago. Now, it’ll become a museum. It’s beautiful — a riparian habitat, forever preserved.”

Grijalva says she hopes voters see her as a public servant, not a politician.

“When I commit to something, I do it. I don’t love the word ‘politician’ — it has a negative connotation. And in Congress, we’ve got too many politicians and not enough public servants. That’s who I believe I am.”

Ballots for the July 15 primary begin arriving in mailboxes June 18.

Any Republican candidate running in the AZ-07 special election knows it is a longshot and more like an exercise in character-building.

Yes, Democrats might be flailing in the national polls, but Raúl Grijalva had easily won re-election after re-election in this deep-blue district for 22 years — his races were basically ceremonial.

Still, three Republicans — Daniel Butierez, Jorge Rivas, and Jimmy Rodriguez — are battling it out for the GOP nomination.

Last night, Butierez, Rivas and Rodriguez showed up for a debate on Arizona Public Media to explain why they think they are the best choice to represent the district.

Joe live-blogged the debate (so you didn’t have to watch) on Bluesky.

More walls, fewer rules: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem waived environmental regulations to build 36 miles of new border wall in Arizona and New Mexico, per the Center Square’s Bethany Blankley. The Tucson Sector is getting “expedited” construction for 27 miles of wall, and the feds are fixing seven gaps in Yuma’s Barry M. Goldwater Range.

A name returned: Investigators used social media to identify the remains of a young woman found in the desert of the Tohono O’Odham Nation in 2008, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins and Bianca Morales report. Genealogy nonprofit Moxxy Forensic Investigations identified Maria Eluvia Mendez Morales after finding the ID investigators originally thought was falsified had accurate information. Her sister said she last saw her leaving their hometown to work in Guatemala City, and always hoped she was still alive.

“The grief doesn’t leave your heart,” the sister said. “It goes away, and then another hurt comes to replace it.”

Court or classroom? Hobbs decides: Lawmakers are awaiting Hobbs’ decision on a bill that would let parents sue public school teachers over antisemitic conduct. Democrat Rep. Alma Hernandez, the bill’s sponsor, recently complained about a Palestinian flag in the window of a school near her home, saying “that flag is not a flag of a country, for those of you who confuse it, it is a political statement which should not be allowed in our public schools,” the Daily Star’s Tim Steller writes. The Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center is asking Hobbs to veto the bill because it could suppress Holocaust education. Plus, teachers could be sued for discussing Israel’s classification as an apartheid state by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Down the drain: A $15 million loan that Nogales’ City council planned to spend on three dozen water and sewer infrastructure projects was only used to finance five projects, per the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña. City Manager Joel Kramer recommends taking out another loan or raising water and sewer rates to complete the remaining projects. Council members are particularly on edge after the county’s former treasurer embezzled $38 million, so Council member John Doyl wants to make sure nothing fishy is happening with the payments.

Subscribe to the Tucson Agenda. Nothing fishy will happen to your payment.

Middle housing mandate: Tucson is preparing for a new state law requiring municipalities to allow multi-family homes within one mile of a central business district, the Daily Star’s Gabriela Rico reports. In Tucson, that’s Prince Road to the north, Silverlake Road to the south, Country Club Road to the east and Silverbell Road to the west. The city’s planning administrator said Tucson needs more middle housing options, but some residents worry the new units won’t actually be affordable. The law takes effect Jan. 1, and the City Council will likely review the new rules in the fall.

The right to choose (if courts agree): Attorney General Kris Mayes won’t defend restrictive abortion laws that reproductive rights groups are challenging under Prop 139, which voters recently approved to put abortion rights in the state constitution. But Republican Speaker Montenegro said he’ll intervene instead, per Capitol Scribe Howie Fischer. Superior Court Judge Randall Warner will likely let Montenegro step in to defend the laws that require a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion and prohibit prescribing abortion-inducing drugs through telemedicine. Even though voters approved the right to abortion, those rights have to be enacted through legal challenges to existing restrictive abortion laws

If you like thirst traps mixed with desert scenery, well, you are in luck.

Tip of the Hat to the Tucson Weekly’s Jack Miessner, who tracked down the “Three Javalinas in a trench coat” that runs the TikTok account for Saguaro National Park.

No, not the official one — this one is pretty awesome.

It’s full of mashups of Pedro Pascal in tight jeans with saguaro blooms, hot dudes and sexy succulents, and rattlers and gym bros shaking their tails.

It’s all part of the #OnlyParks trend that’s sweeping the nation and making national parks sexy.

And friends, Saguaro National Park is as sexy as it gets.

So, why does a real human spend their time making thirst traps about cacti?

Well, national parks are under attack from the Trump administration, but it’s hard to get people to pay attention in a social media environment that’s often dripping sex.

But simply scrolling won’t save the parks, the artist known as Three Javelinas reminds us.

“We ask that if people are serious that they donate their time and money directly to local parks or organizations like the National Park Foundation,” Three Javelinas said. “Liking videos and sharing them is fun, but it means nothing if people don’t act. Like the saguaros, we have to stand tall.”