A Race In Arizona Poses A Stiffer Test For Democrats’ Youth Movement

Not every front-runner is going to be Andrew Cuomo.

Adelita Grijalva is a veteran of both Tucson’s school board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She’s also the 54-year-old daughter of the progressive icon Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose death in March kicked off the special election for his U.S. House seat in Arizona that she is now favored to win.

Grijalva has consolidated institutional support from across the party’s ideological spectrum, winning the backing of local Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, national progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), many of the region’s unions, and national organizations like the Working Families Party. She promises to continue her father’s legacy as a progressive willing to buck party leadership.

“When you grow up Grijalva, you learn how to fight and who you’re fighting for,” she declares in one of her ads.

But as the special election approaches on Tuesday, Grijalva has found herself flustered and baffled by attacks from her opponents labeling her as the “establishment” pick in the race, and by the traction the attack seems to have gained.

“This whole idea that we need someone new,” she said, referring to an argument put forward frequently by her two younger opponents in the race. “Well, that’s why people voted for Trump. How are we feeling about that decision right now?”