The breakdown as of April 8 – 14 Democrats, 9 Republicans, 2 Libertarians, and one each from the Arizona Green Party and the No Labels party.
Notably, none of the candidates for the CD 7 seat are from Yuma. But there is a libertarian scientist, a former beekeeper, a social media influencer, a member of the Arizona National Guard, a former candidate for Colorado Secretary of State, Grijalva’s daughter, a restaurant owner, a Republican whose website worries over secret communists and a former congressional aide who is credited with providing lifesaving aide to his former boss in an assassination attempt in Tucson.
That last person, Daniel Hernandez, is one of two candidates in the mix who have run a campaign for Congress before. Hernandez ran as a candidate in the Democratic Primary in CD 6 in 2022. He lost to Kirsten Engel who would go on to lose a close general election to Republican Juan Ciscomani.
The other now experienced candidate among the 27 is Republican Daniel Butierez.
Butierez lost to Raul Grijalva in CD 7 in 2024.
Butierez captured 36.6 percent of the vote in 2024 against Grijalva’s 63.4 percent, the closest a Republican had come to Grijalva since 2014, when Gabriela Saucedo Mercer got 44.2 percent of the vote to Grijalva’s 55.7 percent.
44.2 percent is actually as close as any candidate against Grijalva ever got since he was first elected in 2002. Republican rocket scientist Ruth McClung got 44.2 percent in 2010.
But Butierez has the distinction of getting more votes against Grijalva than any other Republican candidate he faced over the years with just over 99,000 votes in CD 7 in 2024.
The next closest was Republican Daniel Wood, who got 95,594 votes in a loss to Grijalva in 2020.
So how does that situate Butierez for his special election run without Raul Grijalva in the race in 2025?
We spoke to Butierez April 5th just after he wrapped up a few days at the Yuma County Fair gathering petition signatures and meeting with potential voters.
The small business owner thinks he’s in good shape headed into summer voting.
