Daniel Hernandez in 2023. Photo by Gage Skidmore | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
Former state legislator Daniel Hernandez on Monday announced his plan to run in the special election to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
Hernandez is the first big name to announce a run for the seat held by Democratic U.S. Congressman Raúl Grijalva for more than 20 years until his March 13 death from complications of cancer treatment.
A special primary election is set for July 15, with the general election to follow Sept. 23. The Democrat who wins the primary will almost certainly take the seat in the overwhelmingly blue district that spans much of southern Arizona, from Tucson and Nogales to Yuma.
In a phone interview with the Arizona Mirror, Hernandez acknowledged that it’s a messy time to get into national politics, but said his experiences in the Grand Canyon State have helped prepare him for it.
“When we’re talking about D.C., yes, it’s bad, but I’ve served in the Arizona State Legislature, which I would argue is a pretty big mess,” he said. “I not only survived it, but was able to fight and actually get wins and I think that’s what we really need right now in Washington D.C.”
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The Tucson Democrat got into politics early, and has been credited with helping to save the life of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head during a campaign event in Tucson in 2011. At the time, Hernandez was a 20-year-old intern in his first week with the Giffords campaign.
Hernandez served on the Sunnyside Unified School District and represented Tucson in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2017 through 2022, where he built a reputation for working across the aisle — sometimes to the chagrin of his Democratic colleagues — while also advocating for progressive causes.
Hernandez and his sisters, Democratic state Reps. Consuelo and Alma Hernandez, who are all Jewish, have faced criticism from other Democrats because of their support for Israel.
Hernandez was one of the founding members of the legislature’s LGBTQ Caucus, and advocated for legislation to ban discrimination against gay and transgender people in the workplace. He also worked to lower taxes and to pass a low-income housing tax credit.
Hernandez said he believes it’s important to honor Grijalva’s long legacy of representing the people of southern Arizona, and one of the ways he hopes to do that is by dealing with cost-of-living issues that he said are disproportionately impacting people in District 7. That includes protecting Medicaid and Medicare, which are facing possible cuts from Congress and the Trump administration.
“There are people that will die,” Hernandez said. “There are people that will lose critical services and there are a lot of people like my family that are gonna be negatively impacted.”
The results of the November election, Hernandez said, showed that many Democrats are out of touch with their constituents, adding that they should be listening to voters instead of telling them what to care about.
“We need to listen more and talk less,” Hernandez said.
But he also said he thinks it’s important to make sure Arizonans know exactly how the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal agencies will impact their day-to-day lives, something he said that Democrats need to be sending a clear message about.
“When we’re talking about the Department of Ed shutting down, it’s not just this D.C. bureaucracy,” Hernandez said, adding that it will impact programs that help K-12 students in Tucson, especially those with disabilities.
Democrats in Congress at the moment are facing backlash from members of their own party who think they’re not doing enough to fight back against President Donald Trump’s executive overreach.
Hernandez said he has plenty of experience getting things accomplished as a member of the minority party, having served for six years in the Arizona House of Representatives — which has been under Republican control since 1966.
He described his experience dealing with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, along with a GOP-controlled Arizona House and Senate, as a “trial by fire.”
“I think it’s been particularly helpful, as I gear up for this race, to understand that you can still get things done and you can still get wins for your community, even amidst really difficult circumstances,” Hernandez said.
While the general election for the 7th Congressional District is likely to be uneventful, the Democratic primary could be highly competitive. Hernandez lost the Democratic primary for the 6th Congressional District to Kirsten Engel in 2022.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who was viewed by many as a likely candidate, has said she won’t run. Grijalva’s daughter, Adelita Grijalva, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, is another favorite to run, but she’s said she won’t make any announcements until services for her father have concluded.
Democratic secretary of state and former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes has said he’s considering a run, but has not made any announcements.
Hernandez told the Mirror that he’s already secured some endorsements that he’ll be rolling out soon and feels good about his chances.
“I am a gay Latino who got elected at 26 to the state House,” Hernandez said. “By every measure, I should’ve had no ability to impact any of the public policy happening in the state of Arizona, but I showed up and talked about my values and I was able to get things done.”
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