In Congressional District 7, voters are choosing more than a replacement for the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva. They’re deciding between two sharply different visions on issues shaping daily life in Southern Arizona — from water resources to homelessness.
Republican Daniel Butierez and Democrat Adelita Grijalva, the late congressman’s daughter, both won crowded primary races earlier this summer, and will face off Sept. 23 in a special election to fill the U.S. House seat through 2026.
The candidates present starkly different views on almost every issue relevant to Southern Arizona.
In Arizona Luminaria’s guide to the primary race, both candidates — along with 10 others — answered questions focused on border and immigration policies.
This guide will focus on two other urgent issues: homelessness and water.
Also on the ballot are Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana and No Labels Party candidate Richard Grayson, plus nine write-in candidates.
In Pima County, learn more about how to vote and identify voting locations at the county’s website. Find a full list of candidates, including third-party and write-ins, here.
See a replay of a debate between Grijalva and Butierez.
Voting FAQs
Key dates
Sept. 12 — Last day to request a mail-in ballot. Call your county recorder to request one.
Sept. 16 — Recommended last day to return ballots by mail. After this, drop them off at a vote center to make sure they’re counted.
Sept. 23 — Election Day
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Candidates
Homelessness
Butierez, who speaks openly about overcoming addiction and homelessness, said the issue is personal to him.
Homelessness is “getting worse and worse,” Butierez said, adding that he has a plan to fix it. The plan came to him, he said, while he was sitting in a prison cell.
Butierez served 10 years in prison, though he says he was falsely imprisoned and never officially convicted — an assertion confirmed by a judge’s ruling, who found “clear and convincing evidence establishing that the defendant was convicted of an offense that the defendant did not commit” and vacated the conviction.
The experience behind bars showed Butierez the importance of work and staying off drugs. He says those two elements are the only way to fix the problem of homelessness.
“What we need to do is get them off the street, get them in a position where they are going to be held accountable,” he said.
“The first thing we have to do is hold a roundtable with all the local government, with the media there,” during which, if elected to Congress, he will commit to bringing federal funding to Southern Arizona to get people off the streets. He said local agencies should round up people living in homelessness and give them a choice: get off drugs and get to work, or enter into a rehab center they would not be permitted to leave.
Butierez had previously called these facilities “work camps,” but acknowledged some people may be uncomfortable with the term.
At the rehab centers, people would be off drugs, receive addiction treatment, and be forced to work. “After they detox we determine who needs mental health services; who’s ready to go to work,” Butierez said.
“Once they’re off the drugs, once they start getting paychecks, they start feeling like they can accomplish something.”
Offering them housing first is the wrong approach, he said. “What’s cruel is giving these people food to eat and a nice warm bed to die in. Does that sound compassionate?”
Grijalva, meanwhile, said the approach to the problem from a congressional level may be addressing the issues upstream, trying to minimize or undo cuts to federal housing programs and medical insurance that can result in increased homelessness.
“I do fundamentally believe that local government comes up with the best solutions to local problems,” Grijalva said. She said homelessness is “arguably an epidemic across the nation.”
She touted her own record as a Pima County supervisor. Before she joined the Board of Supervisors, she said, “Pima County said the issue of affordable housing is not our problem. We were out of the housing problem for decades.” She added that she and fellow supervisors worked to make affordable housing a priority.
Still, she said, the federal government may have a role: “The federal system should be funding local solutions to problems.”
Absent that federal support, Grijalva said, “We have to get creative.”
She said that, given the recent federal cuts, “At some point, every single member of congress is going to hear their district scream. We have to have a real education and talk to people about what is coming.”
In 2024 the Supreme Court issued a decision permitting local enforcement against homeless encampments. This summer, Tucson City Council voted 5–1 to ban camping in the city’s washes. Many saw the move as setting up a potential crackdown against the unsheltered communities. Grijalva said it was more about safety and keeping the city’s waterways clear of debris to avoid flooding.
“This is not a living room,” she said of the washes. “The debris does clog up. We don’t want anyone to die.” She said the ordinance “was less about not having people in washes and more about we’re really concerned about people. I don’t think it was to criminalize.”
Water
Arizona, along with much of the Southwest, is in the midst of a decades-long drought. Water-intensive farming, industrial development, and ongoing urban sprawl have all contributed to the scarcity of water in the region.
Butierez and Grijalva both agree it’s an urgent issue, but they have different views about how to achieve longterm stability.
Grijalva said water-guzzling projects like mines, data centers, industrial farming, and border wall construction need to be reigned in. She said Trump has utilized executive and emergency powers “to the detriment of any kind of oversight.” The administration is currently pushing forward on border wall construction, mining projects, and data centers — all of which affect Southern Arizona’s water sustainability, she said.
“We have to fight back in any way we can. We have to use our legal system. We have to use our court system,” Grijalva said.
Grijalva also noted the ongoing proliferation of pollutants, including PFAS, in the Tucson region’s water supply. “We don’t have the infrastructure to provide clean water throughout the community. Throughout CD7 there is pollution in our groundwater,” Grijalva said.
She said she supports the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement, which guarantees partial water rights for Northern Arizona Indigenous nations. She also said she doesn’t currently see desalinization projects as a viable solution.
“We can’t live without it,” Butierez said of water.
He said federal funding to help establish a desalinization project, including a pipeline from the Sea of Cortez, should be a priority.
As for water-guzzling projects, including farming, data centers and mining, he was generally for the projects, but wanted more specific information.
After expressing skepticism about Project Blue during the Aug. 26 debate, Butierez specified that he didn’t like the way the data center project was presented to the public, but he wasn’t necessarily against it.
As for other water-intensive projects, he said he would address those case by case. He said the people of Arizona need their water protected. “I am here to represent Arizona. I’m not here to represent Donald Trump,” Butierez said.
He spoke to Arizona Luminaria on the same day he was driving to Patagonia to learn more about the proposed Hermosa mine. Residents in the area have already seen the effects on their wells.
Third-party candidates on the ballot
Two third-party candidates are running in addition to a slate of write-ins.
Formerly a technician for Hughes Aircraft, which was later bought by Raytheon, Eduardo Quintana said he has long been a union organizer, as well as an anti-war and environmental activist. Calling Trump’s immigration policies “very cruel” he said he has a low threshold for injustice. Immigration policies, as well as U.S. policy towards Israel and what he called the genocide in Gaza is compelling him to run.
One of his initial moves, if elected, Quintana said, would be to “establish a central organizing hub to fight back against this fascist takeover of the country.”
Fiction writer and perennial candidate for Congress, Richard Grayson said he was running with the No Labels party to “sabotage them.” Accusing the party of running as “spoilers,” he worries they will soon start to make regular appearances on the ballot in Arizona. “I particularly hate the No Labels people,” Grayson said.
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