- An under-35-year-old dynamic and personable progressive candidate.
- A compelling candidate message on helping people live better and afford to buy a home or quality healthcare.
- A candidate who does not receive the lion’s share of establishment party endorsements or donations.
- A candidate who utilizes modern social media outreach like TikTok to draw interest and turn out supporters.
- A candidate who, when the race began, was in single digits in polling.
These are all attributes that describe the winner of the New York Mayoral Primary Zohran Mamdani. He is a dynamic and personable 33-year-old New York Assemblyman who ran as a Progressive candidate on an affordability agenda to improve people’s lives. He was not the candidate that received the lion’s share of party endorsements or donations. His campaign was praised for its modern social media outreach to lure in young voters. When the campaign for the Mayoral primary began, he was a blip in the initial polling.
These attributes also describe Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old Gen Z candidate vying to succeed the late Raul Grijalva for Arizona’s Seventh Congressional House Seat.
Like Mamdani, she was a polling blip when this race began. However, some recent polling shows the race for the Democratic Primary within the margin of error between herself and the late Grijalva’s daughter, Adelita.
The polling momentum appears to be real, as a recent op-ed from Itzel Rosales, a Grijalva supporter claiming Foxx is just a social media phenomenon, can attest to. The Grijalva Campaign sees the surge in Foxx’s support, too.
On social media, like Mamdani, Foxx has made a home on Instagram, X, and more profoundly TikTok, drawing in substantial support and interest in her campaign. Her campaign appears to be gaining strength among younger voters, getting the endorsement of former DNC member David Hogg.
She has also appeared in non-political magazines like Teen Vogue, People, Glamour, and Vanity Fair.
Like the winner of the New York Mayoral Primary, she is running on a progressive affordability agenda that includes Medicare for All, affordable housing, childcare, and fully funding public schools.
Foxx, like Mamdani, is also not the first choice of the local establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Most of the endorsements and donations have converged on both the Grijalva and Hernandez Campaigns.
Foxx also presents a dynamic and authentic persona, with a compelling story of her life struggles to make ends meet, being raised by a single mother, and her drive to become the first Gen Z woman to win a seat in the House of Representatives.
In an earlier interview with Blog for Arizona, Foxx said she was running for the House of Representatives because:
“I was born and raised here in Tucson, and I was raised by a single mom. I grew up in Section Eight Housing and on SNAP benefits and Medicaid. As a free lunch kid and in our public schools right here. And the things that Donald Trump has put in his crosshairs are not just policy talking points to me. They are personal. And so, my personal story is what brings me to this work.
“The other reason Is that I feel a deep sense of urgency around this fight. I have been an activist in Arizona on the issue of Reproductive Rights for the last decade. Since I was 15. I fought for better sex education in our TUSD schools when I went toe-toe with Jeff Flake when he tried to defund Planned Parenthood centers here in Arizona. I believe that we need an activist’s experience in this safer bluer seat here in Arizona.”
“I want them to understand that we have an opportunity to make history in this election and send the first woman of my generation Gen Z to Congress. That history-making opportunity is translating to excitement on the ground and with demographics that we stand to lose in this moment in our party to apathy or to the other side”
“Without a doubt, I am the break from the status quo, and for folks like us, working families like mine, we know that the way things have always been done isn’t working and that we are in a moment that is truly unprecedented where authoritarianism through Donald Trump and his billionaire best friends is at the door, and we need more than politicians. We need fighters.”
In a July 3, 2025, op-ed published by Newsweek, Foxx echoed many of the sentiments expressed in her interview with Blog for Arizona, relaying her story and justifying her anti-establishment candidacy by writing:
“I’m not from a political family. I didn’t inherit a donor list. I don’t have deep pockets. Most people don’t. Which is why our elected bodies don’t look like the communities they are meant to represent.”
“That’s why I’m running for Congress. I’ve been homeless. I’ve worked nights and cleaned gas station bathrooms. I’ve stood in line at Planned Parenthood for my own care and fought to keep it open for others. In short, I’ve lived the policies others debate.”
“And when I look around, I see a generation getting priced out, locked out, and left behind. We can’t afford to wait for someone else to fight for us”
“We’re showing what’s possible when people who know what’s at stake step up to lead because we’ve lived it. When we stop pretending that the system is working for everyone and start telling the truth about what it takes to get by. Voters know the way things have always been done isn’t working. They’re asking for someone who gets it—and who’s not afraid to fight…”
“This is the future of politics. It’s not just about age or even ideology. It’s about lived experience. It’s about honesty and a new generation of leadership. One that reflects what people like us have always known: the hard work it takes to make sure your family can do more than just get by, but have a real shot at getting ahead.”
“Whether the establishment is ready or not, we’re here. And we’re proving a different way of doing politics isn’t just possible—it’s necessary.”
When asked to compare her campaign strategy and momentum with the successful Mamdani candidacy, a campaign spokesperson from the Foxx Campaign commented:
“It’s clear voters are hungry for next-generation leaders who excite them whether that’s in Arizona or across the country.”
Early voting in the Arizona Democratic Congressional District Seven Primary Election is underway and will conclude on July 15.
The Foxx Campaign does appear to have momentum, and it is certainly possible she could do in Arizona Congressional District Seven what Mamdani did in New York’s Mayoral Primary in a multi-candidate race with her affordability agenda and personal appeal that translates well in this particular locale.
However, unlike Mamdani, her main opponents (Adelita Grijalva and Daniel Hernandez) do not have the political baggage of scandal-tainted Andrew Cuomo that turned off many voters.
That may be the X factor on who prevails on July 15.
Despite that, other Democratic Campaigns can learn from the already proven successful strategies and social media venues Foxx has utilized to gain support for her race to become the first woman Gen Z member of the House of Representatives.
While not everything Foxx advocated for may work in every district in Arizona, her outreach and turnout efforts should be tools even candidates more to the center can draw lessons from.
Stay Tuned.
Please click here to read all the Blog for Arizona articles where Ms. Foxx is featured, including the May 11 interview she did with this writer, her appearance with Democrats of Greater Tucson, and a recent article by Larry Bodine, Anti-Establishment Sentiment May Propel Deja Foxx to Win Race for CD7 in Tucson.
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Wow, Blog for Arizona is pushing Deja Foxx and dissing Adelita Grijalva almost as much as your soulmate Phil Boas of The Arizona Republic.
Where is the dissing of Ms. Grijalva in this article? Please cite.