David Hogg’s Candidate Loses in Arizona

It wasn’t good news for the David Hogg-backed candidate Deja Foxx as the votes came in late last night in the race to be the Democrat nominee to fill Arizona’s 7th Congressional District seat.

Foxx, who gained notoriety for her pointed remarks to then-Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in 2017, had been touted by the mainstream press as a real challenger to the perceived favorite Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., whose death in office prompted the special primary and general election to replace him. 

With about 77% of the vote tabulated in the special primary election, the 25-year-old influencer fell spectacularly short of winning the race. Instead, Grijalva is on track to win an outright majority of the vote in the race for her father’s old seat. Grijalva has marshaled about 62% of the vote compared to Foxx’s approximately 21% and former congressional intern Daniel Hernandez’s 14%. 

Foxx’s race was a bellwether case for whether Hogg’s political action committee—Leaders We Deserve—could make the difference in elevating younger activist-type candidates over the Democrat establishment. Indeed, Hogg’s organization is expected to spend a total of about $20 million by 2026’s conclusion. 

Foxx’s defeat is another hurdle for Hogg who left his position as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after just a few months on the job after he declined to sign a pledge promulgated by DNC Chair Ken Martin to remain neutral in Democrat primaries.

“I came into this role to play a positive role in creating the change our party needs. It is clear that there is a fundamental disagreement about the role of a vice chair—and it’s OK to have disagreements. What isn’t OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on,” Hogg said in a statement around the time of his DNC departure.