Raúl Manuel Grijalva ( ; February 19, 1948 – March 13, 2025) was an American politician and activist who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona from 2003 until his death in 2025. As member of the Democratic Party, Grijalva represented from 2003 to 2013, from 2013 to 2023, and the 7th district again from 2023 to 2025. The two districts included the western third of Tucson, part of Yuma and Nogales, and some peripheral parts of metropolitan Phoenix.
In October 2024, Grijalva announced that he would not run for re-election in 2026, amid treatments for lung cancer, but died before he could complete his final term. The 2025 Arizona's 7th congressional district special election was held on September 23, 2025, in which Adelita Grijalva, his daughter, was elected to serve the remainder of his term.
Early life, education and career
Grijalva was born on February 19, 1948, in Canoa Ranch, south of Tucson, the son of Rafaela and Raúl Grijalva. His father was a migrant worker from Mexico who entered the United States in 1945 through the Bracero Program and labored on southern Arizona ranches. He graduated from Sunnyside High School in 1967 and was a 2004 inductee to the Sunnyside High School Alumni Hall of Fame. He attended the University of Arizona and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology.
Grijalva was an Arizona leader of the Raza Unida Party. According to Armando Navarro's history of the party, "Grijalva was so militant that he alienated some members of Tucson's Mexican-American community. After losing his first bid for elective office, a 1972 run for a seat on the school board, he began cultivating a less radical image."Armando Navarro, La Raza Unida Party, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000, p. 204.
In 1974, Grijalva was elected to the Tucson Unified School District board and served until 1986. Grijalva Elementary School in Tucson was named for him in 1987. From 1975 to 1986, Grijalva was the director of the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, and in 1987, he was Assistant Dean for Hispanic Student Affairs at the University of Arizona. Grijalva was a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors from the 5th district from January 1, 1989 to February 6, 2002 and served as chair from 2000 to 2002. He resigned as a supervisor in 2002 to run for Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives
Tenure
108th Congress (2003–2005) Grijalva was elected as a Democrat to the 108th Congress in 2002, representing Arizona's seventh congressional district. As a freshman congressman, the first bill he sponsored was H.R. 731, the Tohono O'odham Citizenship Act of 2003. Although the bill was not passed into law, it sought to grant American citizenship to all members of the Tohono Oʼodham. This federally recognized tribe has land that stretches from their reservation in Arizona across the U.S.–Mexico border into the Mexican state of Sonora, resulting in some of its members not being U.S. citizens.
114th Congress (2015–2017) In 2015, Grijalva settled a complaint accusing him of drunkenness and a "hostile workplace environment" with a female staffer who had been at her job for three months. The $48,000 payment was made from House of Representatives funds.
116th Congress (2019–2021) For his tenure as the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee in the 116th Congress, Grijalva earned an "A" grade from the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.
In 2019, Grijalva was the subject of an Ethics Committee probe relating to his alcoholism and creating a "hostile workplace." He repeatedly came under fire for alcohol use, but denied alcoholism.
117th Congress (2021–2023) Grijalva was at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to certify the 2020 presidential electoral college votes when the Capitol was attacked by Donald Trump supporters. Moments after Grijalva finished speaking in support of certifying Arizona's votes, rioters started banging on the doors of the House chambers. He called the attack "one of the darkest and most shameful days of our republic" and the perpetrators "domestic terrorists." Grijalva blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the attack and called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office. After the 25th Amendment was not invoked, Grijalva supported impeaching Trump a second time. He voted to impeach Trump again on January 13, 2021.
In February, Grijalva voted in support of the American Rescue Plan, which included a nationwide $15 federal minimum wage increase. However, the Senate Parliamentarian removed the increase from the bill. As a result, Grijalva joined a group of progressive Democrats in calling to overturn the Parliamentarian's ruling.
Grijalva voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
118th Congress (2023–2025) During the 118th Congress, Grijalva returned to serve as the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.
119th Congress (2025) Only three months into his 12th term in Congress, Grijalva died after battling lung cancer. He was succeeded by his daughter, Adelita Grijalva in a special election later that year to serve out the remainder of his term.
Committee assignments For the 118th Congress: Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee on Natural Resources (Ranking Member) In addition to the below, Rep. Grijalva was entitled to sit as an ex officio member in all subcommittee meetings per the committee rules. Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
Caucus memberships Grijalva was a member of several dozen caucuses. A full list is available at his website. Congressional Progressive Caucus Congressional Hispanic Caucus Congressional Equality Caucus Congressional Arts Caucus Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus Congressional Voting Rights Caucus Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus Blue Collar Caucus House Pro-Choice Caucus Congressional Coalition on Adoption Rare Disease Caucus
Political positions
Grijalva formerly co-chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus with Mark Pocan, having been replaced by Pramila Jayapal after stepping down in order to chair the House Committee on Natural Resources. In 2008, he was among 12 members rated by National Journal as tied for most liberal overall. On the ideological map of all House members at GovTrack's website, Grijalva had been ranked furthest to the left. Liberal and progressive activist groups routinely gave him high marks for his voting record. Grijalva received a 100% score from Americans for Democratic Action, Peace Action, the League of Conservation Voters, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Arab American Institute, and several other notable groups.Rep. Raul M. Grijalva: Organization Ratings & Scores. Retrieved June 1, 2010. At the start of the 114th Congress, Grijalva became the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources. As of 2023, the AFL-CIO labor union federation gave Grijalva a 100% score, with a lifetime score of 99%.
Grijalva was an advocate of mining law reform and many other environmental causes. From his position on the House Committee on Natural Resources—where he had been the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands since 2007—he had led Democratic efforts to strengthen federal offshore oil drilling oversight since before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and introduced a successful bill to create a permanent National Landscape Conservation System at the Bureau of Land Management. He was a leading candidate for Secretary of the Interior when President Barack Obama was elected, but the job eventually went to Ken Salazar; according to The Washington Post, Obama made the decision in part because of Grijalva's stated preference for more environmental analysis before approving offshore drilling projects.
Grijalva was a vocal opponent of Arizona's SB 1070 law, which mandates police checks of citizenship documentation for anyone subjected to a legitimate law enforcement stop, detention or arrest as long as the officer does not consider race, color or national origin during the stop, detention or arrest. Shortly after Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed the measure, Grijalva called on legal, political, activist and business groups not to hold their conventions or conferences in Arizona, a position he said quickly became misconstrued as a call for a general boycott of Arizona's economy.Grijalva calls for economic boycott. Retrieved June 2, 2010. In response, the Arizona Republican Party handed out bumper stickers reading "Boycott Grijalva, Not Arizona". After a federal judge stopped implementation of most of SB 1070, Grijalva withdrew the boycott, saying that he had reacted to it "very personally". In an interview, he said, "to all of a sudden have a law that separates me from the whole I found very offensive and demeaning."
Grijalva criticized the 2010 deployment of 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.–Mexico border as "political symbolism" that he believed would not adequately address the issues of immigration and border security.New Deployment of National Guard to US-Mexico Border Is Election-Year "Political Symbolism". Retrieved June 1, 2010.
Grijalva often called for a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported the wider implementation of the National Solidarity Program as a way to improve Afghans' economic and educational infrastructure. The group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave him an "A" rating for the 2007–08 congressional session and a "C" for 2009–10.
Abortion Grijalva had a pro-choice voting record and voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which sought to place limits on taxpayer-funded abortions in the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Grijalva opposed the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling it "about control" and "mostly men forcing women to carry a child against their will. It is about trapping women in our society in cycles of poverty, so that they cannot easily rise to challenge these men who fear their success."
Budget proposals As co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Grijalva took a leading role in shaping CPC "alternative budgets"—budget bills offered by various groups and caucuses in Congress other than the official majority or minority party plan. In 2011 the CPC introduced what it called the People's Budget, which reached budget balance in 10 years according to an assessment by the Economic Policy Institute based on nonpartisan government data. The proposal was noted approvingly by some of the world's leading economists, including Jeffrey Sachs—who called it "a bolt of hope ... humane, responsible, and most of all sensible"—and Paul Krugman, who called it "genuinely courageous" for achieving budget balance "without dismantling the legacy of the New Deal".
In 2012, again with Grijalva as co-chair, the Progressive Caucus introduced the Budget for All, which is similar to the People's Budget and includes several new features, including a novel proposal to institute a small personal wealth tax above $10 million in net worth phased in over a period of five years. The proposal received 78 votes, all from Democrats, when the House considered it on March 29, 2012.
Grijalva was among the 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.
Deepwater Horizon and oil rig safety