“It’s Personal:” Deja Foxx Wants to Make History as the First Gen Z Member of Congress

There is an embarrassment of riches for voters to consider this July when they decide which of three exceptional candidates, they would like to succeed the late Raul Grijalva in the Arizona House Congressional District (CD) Seven Seat. 

One candidate who merits serious consideration and would represent the voice of a new generation is digital strategist Deja Foxx. 

Recently turned 25, if elected, Ms. Foxx would be the first member of Gen Z in the House of Representatives. 

Saying “I didn’t pick politics. Politics picked me,” Ms. Fox, raised by a single mother who relied on SNAP benefits, school free lunches, and Medicaid, will if elected, work to:

• Promote opportunities for affordable housing and childcare.
• Protect social services.
• Secure reproductive rights. 
• Champion Medicare for All.
• Fund public schools. 
• Be a good steward of the environment.

Saying her campaign for Congress to serve the people and fend off Donald Trump and MAGA’s assault on them as “personal,” Ms. Fox pledges to be a transparent leader who will bring an activist’s temperament to the halls of Congress.

Ms. Foxx graciously took the time to speak with Blog for Arizona about her candidacy for the Arizona CD Seven House seat. 

The questions and her answers are below. 

Please tell the readers two reasons you would like to run for the Arizona House Congressional District Seven Seat.

“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 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 that 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 here in Arizona, and 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.”

What would you say to convince people that are used to supporting a Grijalva for over two decades to support you? Pease explain. 

“First and foremost, I like to question a question. People in this district are used to supporting Raul Grijalva, but this is an open seat, and healthy primaries are good for everyone. They are good for the long-term health of our Democracy. And our campaign is doing things differently. Half of our volunteers that gathered signatures had never gathered signatures for a campaign or a cause before. When we launched our canvas, three volunteers showed up because they had found us on Tik Tok, and they had never knocked doors for a candidate before. One of them. I interviewed her. We actually knocked doors together. We paired off and I asked her ‘Well, what brought you out? Why come out now, right? In a special election primary in Arizona in the middle of summer. Why make this your first campaign you’re engaging with?’ And she told me that  she’s someone who’s been very critical. She’s been the kind of person who was tearing things apart for what they weren’t good enough for right, and now she wants to work on helping build something up. And when she looked around at what candidates were available to her, I was the one she felt excited about. Excited enough to turn up for the very first time and take action. When talking to people at the doors and our constituents, 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.”

You feel where the candidate at the moment compared to Ms. Grijalva or Mr. Hernandez. 

“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 your opinion, what are three issues that won’t? You will run on to earn the nomination and win in the general election in September.

“Here’s the thing. When people think about youth issues, they boil them down for these talking points, but I have hosted youth listening sessions here in my living room in Tucson, where young people sit around in a circle and we talk about the issues impacting our lives, the things that they think about before they go to bed, and they are, by and large the same things other generations are worried about.”

“Coming to the top is Affordable housing, and this is an issue that’s close to my heart. I experienced homelessness in high school right after my mom struggled with substance abuse. I moved out, lived with a boyfriend, and his family was housing insecure. And I know what that reality is like, and I listened to young people in my living room who tell me that they save up paycheck after paycheck, and they don’t get any closer to moving out of their parents’ house, right. That they are one car breakdown away from not making rent that they feel like home ownership was something promised to other generations and a mile away for them. And so, for me, affordable housing is about not just getting by but having a shot at getting ahead. That is going to be a top issue for me. It’s personal.”

The next is something that’s been a signature issue for me for the last decade that I have stood fully behind and that’s reproductive rights. Whether it was fighting at a very local level for better sex education in Southern Arizona’s largest school district and winning or going to toe with Jeff Flake over his efforts to strip Title 10 funding from Planned Parenthood centers or even being arrested on Capitol Hill after the overturn of Roe versus Wade in an act of civil disobedience alongside Congressional Members, leaders in the reproductive rights movement and so many others. I have been on the front lines of that movement, and I intend not only to vote the right way on that issue, but to be a champion, because I know that for young women like me, the first generation of women to have fewer rights than our mothers. This issue matters, and they deserve a champion.”

The final piece is protecting Social Services. Like I said, I grew up on Section Eight Housing and on SNAP Benefits and Medicaid. One of the moments in which I knew I had to get into this race and that compelled me to stay engaged in politics was a tweet that Elon Musk put out saying that families like ours that rely on these social services. folks like our grandparents who rely on the Social Security checks that they earned. Elon Musk was calling them ‘the parasite class’ in this tweet, and that galvanizes someone like me because I’ve had to make hard decisions In the grocery checkout line and to hear people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who have probably never even done their own grocery shopping talk like that about me and my neighbors Is the kind of thing I will not stand for. I intend to go to DC and protect Social Services for our most vulnerable families and our seniors who have earned the Social Security checks that they rely on. So those are the three issues that are core to me.”

What is your view on expanding quality and affordable healthcare access for people?

“When it comes to health care, right, I am presently uninsured, which probably sets me apart from a lot of the candidates, not only in this race, but across the country. And so, for me, I’m interested in Medicare for All, a solution, where in one of the richest countries in the world. No one, me included, should be uninsured. No one should be one Healthcare emergency away from bankruptcy. I believe that the only thing stopping us from making sure that everybody had health care in our country is courage. It is certainly not a financial Issue. It is one of prioritization. And, you know, like, I said, for someone like me who grew up on Medicaid, this is personal.”

Another issue of affordability is for parents being able to pay for childcare and preschool. What would be your position on those please? 

Well, you know, I just recently toured a center here in Tucson that provides Pre-K Early Childhood education and a number of other services to low-income children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford that kind of level of high-quality care. I listened and heard from their staff as they talked about how Trump’s executive orders would affect the fact that nearly 80 percent of their funding is federal funding. I toured these classrooms where these children are learning science and the alphabet and so it really lit a fire under me that when it comes to early childhood education when it comes to child care, Donald Trump has our most vulnerable families in his crosshairs, and we need someone who’s going to stand up to him because we recognize that what’s happening behind the scenes in D.C, is all these DOGE boys just looking at a spreadsheet and canceling things off, but they don’t know what it is to be families like ours. I think about how my mom, when she didn’t have a job or she was between jobs. She worked every odd job under the sun. She worked at a post office. She delivered flowers. She was a caregiver for the elderly. She cleaned houses, and when she was out of work, she would often step up for our neighbors and babysit so they could pull an extra shift at work, and for me, that was the very first moment in which I understood what organizing meant. That is organizing to me and though I grew up in a community that was made to not have enough when child care rights should be available to families at a cost that they can afford when early childhood education should be for everyone no matter your ZIP code or how much money your parents make. I have watched the ways that my community has been resilient and made enough because Investing in our children is a priority.”

What is your position on Comprehensive Immigration Reform? 

“I was just recently out at a protest at TMC (Tucson Medical Center) because of the intervention of immigration officials with a young mother who had just had a baby It is an evolving story, but this kind of family separation policy that is intended to be cruel and it is something we cannot stand for in our communities, And frankly, you know, when I talk about the decade of work that I’ve done around birth control access, sex education and abortion. That all falls for me under an umbrella of how I envision the world we are going to build together, And that’s a vision of reproductive justice. It is one in which we decide if and when to have children  free from government intervention, but also one in which we are able to parent the children we do have in safe and thriving communities, and that includes communities that are not under the threat of climate change and extreme heat year-round, I know what it’s like to take the bus in 117 degree weather, and it is hard work. I see communities that are free from the threat of family separation at the hands of immigration and immigration enforcement. Finally, I see a future in which we can afford rent and groceries for our families and that is all attainable, and so I  want people to understand that, as I look at things like immigration, I see them as integrated into a larger understanding of that vision for the future, and one that I’ve been fighting for the last 10 years.”

When you and your campaign volunteers visit people at their homes, what are the top two things they are saying and what is your response to what they are telling you and your campaign? 

“We have knocked on hundreds of doors and I’m very proud of the volunteer effort we have put forward on the ground, and I hope that people will tune in on social media to see a little bit of that behind the scenes and then show up and join us because what we’re hearing at the doors. Is two things: We are still early in this race,though the chattering class and establishment might feel otherwise and most people don’t even know that the special election is happening yet. That’s a fact. So, when we show up and we remind them, hey, put this on your fridge and remember this date, it is about the long-term strategy that our campaign is invested in. We absolutely intend to win this race at the ballot box but we are picking up wins every single day by engaging people in the process. We recognize that this seat has been held for 22 years practically my lifetime and that while it was held by an incredible Progressive icon whose legacy I stand in, we also have an opportunity in this moment through a healthy primary to engage folks who have often been left out, who haven’t been engaged in a while, and that is the long-term strategy that’s going to be good for Democrats and our Democracy. And so, what we’re hearing at the doors is most people don’t know this election is happening yet and we’re getting them engaged around it. We are getting them excited, And the second thing I’m going to say is that people are still really open to who they want to support in this, and when we give them the lay of the land and share my personal story. My connection to this work, why it matters so much to me. Why it is personal. My upbringing. The story of becoming the first of my family to go to college because of good policy. They resonate with that on a personal level, and I want to share is that I think a lot of folks have dismissed me as a candidate who only appeals to a younger generation, which is true. We do appeal to a younger generation, and we cannot push that aside because we are losing those voters in real time, and we need to be engaging them. But what we’ve actually seen at the doors is a real connection to older women who have fought for decades for the rights that I have enjoyed. Who fought to make Roe versus Wade, the law of the land, and have now seen it overturned and are horrified at the thought that they may not get to see it reinstated. They want an assurance that there are younger leaders that are going to take up this fight and carry it on.  I had a woman almost brought to tears the other night while I was knocking her door talking about this fear that she feels. That this work might have been for nothing. That there might not be people to carry it on, and I feel a deep sense of responsibility to those older folks who have fought hard for the freedoms that I have enjoyed. To give them the assurance that someone like me is going to carry on that fight.”

You mentioned that one of the other major candidates is helped by an extensive email contact list. In fact, both of the other major candidates have extensive email contact lists. How will you and your campaign address the advantage they have in that area?

“We’re running our own race over here but It’s worth stating that part of the reason we’re in this is to make the process more transparent, and that means being honest with our constituents about the advantages that some folks have that we simply don’t. We need to be honest about what it means to run as a young, first time working class candidate. It is not easy and it’s not easy by Design. If it was easy, we’d have more people like me in the halls of power. Presently, we have one member of Congress representing my entire generation, a generation that makes up one in five Americans. That’s a representation problem, and it is by design. And so, when you ask me, how do we address that? They’re sort of three things. The first is that we have an opportunity to make history and to represent people all across the country. Young people in particular who do not have representation at the moment. I would be the first woman of my generation, in Congress. The second thing is that we are bringing a level of excitement to this race that otherwise would be lacking, We are energizing people. We’ve accumulated four million organic views since our launch just through good storytelling just by giving people the kind of candidacy that they are hungry for. And the final thing is that we’re doing things differently when we think about those  four thousand people, we’ve engaged around our story online. We think about that as people power. That those are people that if each and every one of them chipped in the dollar if they really believe that they could make a difference. We’d be done fundraising. We wouldn’t just be done fundraising. I mean, we would be like four or five times past what we would even need and there is an effort here to use new media tools, to reach people who have often been left out and remind them of their power and ask them to trip in and chip in at scale.”

Is there anything that covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers to know about you or your candidacy? Please explain. 

“I hope they know that there is a serious path to victory here and that we have an opportunity to pick possibility over predictability. This is an election and that their voice and their vote matters. I hope that they’ll consider pitching in to support our campaign and that they’ll save the date. Early voting is just around the corner in June, and our election is coming up fast on July 15^th.”

“If you are on Instagram or Tik Tok, I hope that you will take a look at our content and see the ways that we are doing this differently and creating a really transparent experience around this election. We have an opportunity to send someone to DC, to the halls of power who will continue to be a standout messenger and will continue to bring a level of transparency that we have yet to see into this seat and into the halls of power in DC. So, I’d like to encourage folks to go over there and take a look at our content and really, get to know us in our campaign.”

Please click here to find out more about Deja Foxx and her candidacy for the Arizona House Congressional District Seven seat.