Adelita Grijalva

Adelita S. Grijalva (born October 30, 1970)^[1] is an American politician who served as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors from District 5 from 2021 to 2025 and on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board for 20 years. The daughter of former U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva, she is a candidate for the 2025 special election to fill the seat he represented.

Grijalva is a native Tucsonan, the granddaughter of a bracero who came to the United States from Mexico in 1945 and the daughter of former U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva.^[2] She graduated from Pueblo High School in 1989 and the University of Arizona with a degree in political science in 1995.^[3][1]

Grijalva was the youngest woman ever elected to the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board in 2002, serving for 20 years, making her one of the longest-serving TUSD Board members in history. ^{[4] [5]} In 2008 she received Advocate of the Year from the Arizona School Counselors Association for her tireless advocacy to keep counselors in schools.^[4] She voted against firing the co-founder and director of Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies program, and was the only board member who voted against shutting down its Mexican American Studies classes in 2012.^[6]

She was elected to the Pima County Board of Supervisors in 2020 with 73.60% of the vote.^[7] In office, she focussed on recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; centering safety, affordable housing and strong job creation as key to recovery efforts.^[8] She served as Chair and Vice-Chair during her time on the board, making a strong commitment to working with community to create a coalition to address the biggest issues facing Pima County, particularly housing people can afford, education, climate, and water resiliency, and healthy and safe communities.^[5]

Grijalva successfully pushed for the board to open meetings with a land acknowledgement to the indigenous Tohono O'odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe.^[9] She was appointed chair of the board in 2023, previously serving as vice chair for the two years prior, making her the first Latina to hold the position.^[10][11]

Due to Arizona's resign-to-run law, she announced her resignation from the Board effective April 4, 2025, to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.^[1][12] Andrés Cano was appointed by the board to succeed her.^[13]

On March 31, 2025, Grijalva announced that she was launching a campaign for the seat vacated by the death of her father, longtime U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva, to pursue the Democratic nomination for Arizona's 7th congressional district in a 2025 special election.^[14] Grijalva met her signature goal in the first five hours of her congressional campaign, making her the first candidate to appear on the ballot.^[15] Grijalva said Congress should be reining in President Donald Trump as he cuts the federal government workforce, claws back grant dollars and guts agencies like the U.S. Department of Education.^[14] She criticizes plans for a new copper mine at Oak Flat, a project that refused to consider concerns by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and others that the land was necessary for their ceremonies.^[16] She has received endorsements from leaders including Bernie Sanders, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and a number of Tucson City Council members, Pima County Supervisors, and state lawmakers.^[17][18][14]

Grijalva lives in Tucson with her husband Sol Gómez, a librarian, and their three children.^[19]