There are five Democrats and three Republicans seeking the CD-7 seat, as well as a handful of libertarian, green, and other candidates.
The primaries for Democratic and Republican candidates are July 15th. Ballots are out for mail-in voters now.
We’ve spoken to several of the candidates on Arizona Edition, including two of the Republican candidates.
Daniel Butierez, who ran against Grijalva in 2024, seems to have the most notoriety. He told Arizona Edition he is looking to build momentum from his first run and thinks he is best suited to move on to the general election in September.
Jimmy Rodriguez is a first-time candidate motivated to run following a family tragedy that showed him how difficult it can be to get access to political leaders for help. Rodriguez was also the subject of an Arizona Luminaria investigation that revealed he is on federal probation for fraud related to covid loans. How that has impacted his campaign remains to be seen.
The third Republican is Jorge Rivas.
Rivas is a Tucson restaurant owner. He captured some attention for a "Latinos Love Trump" cowboy hat at a rally in Phoenix during the 2020 Election. He says the attention tripled his business after Trump noticed and tweeted and endorsement for his restaurant.
We spoke to Rivas before the vote on the big beautiful bill, although he does comment on what he thinks generally about the legislation.
