Contact Information
Candidate Background
Candidacy
Undergraduate education: University of Arizona
Raul Grijalva was born and lives in Tucson, Ariz. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona.
He began his career as a community organizer and was instrumental in starting El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson. He is the former director of El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and a former assistant dean for Hispanic Student Affairs at the University of Arizona.
Grijalva was a member of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board from 1974 to 1986, and he served as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 2002.
He was elected to the U.S. House in 2002 with 59 percent of the vote in the general election.
Grijalva and his wife, Mona, have three daughters.
Profile
Raul Grijalva made new enemies in 2009 when he called for a boycott of his home state after the governor signed a bill cracking down on illegal immigrants. The boycott cost the state conventions and other tourist cash. He called for the boycott to be suspended after a federal judge put most of the law on hold in late July 2010.
He voted for health care reform in 2010, and his other priorities have included oil drilling industry oversight, promoting a second jobs bill, protecting the Grand Canyon from proposed uranium mining and reducing military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Grijalva's name was floated in early 2009 as a possible candidate for Interior Secretary in the Barack Obama administration but Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado got the job. Grijalva was appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee but declined, saying he'd have lost his seniority and subcommittee chairmanship on the House Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
He initially backed former Sen. John Edwards in the 2008 presidential race, but switched to Obama in January 2008. Grijalva has developed a solid working relationship with the president since then.
Grijalva has concentrated much attention on drug wars and violence along the Arizona-Mexico border as a lawmaker in a border district. He and fellow border representative, Gabrielle Giffords, met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 before Clinton visited Mexico.
Grijalva is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, through which he has pushed for reinvesting in infrastructure, the public education system and alternative energy programs that produce new, green-focused jobs. He is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Grijalva's measure in August 2005 returned a 25-square mile tract known as La Paz to the Colorado River Indian Tribes. Grijalva accomplished with two years of gathering bi-partisan support what the late Sen. Barry Goldwater twice attempted to do.
"Sometimes when we do legislation we think in the abstract ... But then afterward, when you feel and when you sense and when you see the impact, you go, 'OK, this was a very good thing,'" he told the AP in December 2005.
Grijalva is for abortion rights, and he supports laws that prevent violence and harassment at reproductive health providers. He also supports enforcing pay equity for men and women doing equivalent work and supports Social Security and health plans that serve senior citizens.
Campaigns
Raul Grijalva faces political newcomer Ruth McClung in the November 2010 election. McClung is a physicist at an engineering company in Tucson who won the primary by defeating four challengers. She was supported by tea party activists.
Grijalva was first elected to the House in 2002, winning 59 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2004, defeating Republican Joe Sweeney with 62 percent of the vote, and again in 2006, beating Republican Ron Drake with 61 percent of the vote.
Grijalva faced Sweeney once again in 2008 and was re-elected with 63 percent of the vote.
Before seeking the U.S. House seat, Grijalva was a member of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board from 1974 to 1986, and a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 2002.
(Last updated by Bob Christie on September 2, 2010.)
