GOP, Dems compete in Arizona congressional races

By Zachery Schmidt
The Center Square

Arizona Republicans and Democrats in the 7th and 8th congressional districts are battling it out to see who will advance to the general election.

Primaries for both parties will take place on July 21. Early voting started on June 24.

In the 7th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Goodyear, and Republican Daniel Butierez Sr. are the only candidates running. Thus they will both advance to another showdown in the general election.

In September 2025, Adelita Grijalva defeated Butierez in a special election by nearly 40 percentage points and by over 40,000 votes. She succeeded her dad, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March 2025 from cancer.

In Congress, Adelita Grijalva co-sponsored a bill to provide a pathway to citizenship for noncitizens, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

Grijalva also co-sponsored a bill that establishes Medicare for All.

Neither bill became law.

In another economic area, she voted in favor of the 21st Century Housing Act, which restricts institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

For Butierez, this will be his third GOP primary victory in the 7th Congressional District. In addition to losing the special election last year, Butierez lost to Raúl Grijalva in 2024.

Butierez, a small-business owner, is running on a platform that supports a national sales tax between 15% and 20%. According to his website, the national sales tax would replace federal income taxes.

Furthermore, his website says he supports creating tax credits and trade reforms to bring back American manufacturing, as well as expanding career technical education.

To help homeless people in America, Butierez backs expanding federal support for “mandatory rehabilitation programs tied to shelter access.” The candidate’s website said Butierez was previously “addicted to drugs and experienced homelessness.”

The Center Square reached out to Grijalva and Butierez, but did not hear back before publication time.

Grijalva has the cash-on-hand advantage over Butierez: $427,977 to $11,399, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The highest donation amount Grijalva received was $5,000, which occurred 49 times, including from the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee, Progressive Voters of America, National Education, Medicare for All and Jane Fonda Climate PAC.

Grijalva received $1.8 million from individual contributors and $435,939 from PACs. She has received $2.3 million in donations.

Butierez has not gotten a donation since 2025.

He has primarily been self-financing his campaign, donating $175,298 of his own money, which accounts for 78% of the money donated.

The largest donation came from Butierez, who gave his campaign $136,470.

Butierez has brought in $224,367 in campaign donations.

In Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, two Democratic candidates will battle to see who runs against U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Surprise, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

The two Democrats are Bernadette Greene Placentia and Raymond Keeler.

Greene Placentia said she will focus on affordability issues.

Greene Placentia, a former long-haul truck driver, told The Center Square that Arizonans are “being priced out” of homeownership and “struggling to pay bills.”

The Federal Reserve should lower interest rates on housing, she said.

Greene Placentia also said she backs a federal living wage between $15 and $20 an hour. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25.

Another priority for the Democrat is maintaining Social Security, given the district’s large retiree population.

And Greene Placentia told The Center Square that America needs to secure its borders, but “without sacrificing our humanity.”

She added that too many illegal immigrants were let in during the Biden administration.

Greene Placentia said America needs to add more judges and immigration attorneys to process the illegal immigrants coming into the country.

As a candidate, Keeler, a software engineer and Army veteran, supports housing that helps “tiny homeowners in zoned plots with HOAs,” according to his campaign website.

His campaign website says he supports incentivizing 3D home printing and additional “zoning for more affordable [housing] ownership.”

Keeler supports expanding E-Verify, an online system employers use to verify a person’s legal authorization to work in America, according to his campaign website.

The website added that Keeler does not support a border wall and favors deporting only illegal immigrants with a history of violent crime.

The Center Square reached out to Keeler, but did not hear back before publication time.

Greene Placentia has $190,394 of cash on hand compared to Keeler’s, which was in the red: -$1,507.

Greene Placentia has not received any money from PACs. Instead, she got $209,358 in donations from individuals.

Keeler’s campaign has received only five donations totaling $39,356.00. Keeler has given his own campaign $10,000, which accounts for 25% of his donations.

Hamadeh, who has represented the 8th District since 2025, supported the 21st Century Housing Act.

Hamadeh has been a strong supporter of strengthening America’s laws against illegal immigrants. He voted in favor of the Lincoln Riley Act, which expands mandatory detention for noncitizens convicted or accused of certain crimes.

The Army veteran also supported allocating additional funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as introducing a bill that enhances criminal penalties for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer.

Hamadeh supported the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which implemented tax cuts and sought to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.

According to his campaign website, Hamadeh supports protecting Social Security.

FEC records show Hamadeh has $384,185 of cash on hand.

Hamadeh has brought in $1,206,361 in donations. Individual contributions have accounted for 46% of his donations: $558,600.

The representative’s campaign received $269,960 from PACs.

Hamadeh’s biggest contributor has been Bold Era JFC, a joint fundraising committee affiliated with his campaign. It has donated $360,954 to his campaign, with the biggest donation being $55,964.

The Center Square reached out to Hamadeh’s campaign, but it did not respond before publication time.

Polls for the Arizona primary will be open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. MST on July 21. For early results that evening, see thecentersquare.com/arizona.

For more information, visit the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office website, azsos.gov/elections.