OPINION:
Democrats running for political office are realizing that adopting an anti-Israel posture on the campaign trail is no longer a liability.
For Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva, her newfound hostility toward the Jewish state is being rewarded by Democratic voters and liberal lawmakers. In July, Ms. Grijalva won the Democratic primary to succeed her late father, Raul Grijalva, who represented the state’s 7th Congressional District for over 20 years. Democrats hold a nearly 2-1 advantage over Republicans in the district.
Ms. Grijalva is facing off against GOP candidate Daniel Butierez and is expected to win this month’s special election to fill the House seat. She appeared to capitalize on her party’s disaffection for the Jewish state during the Aug. 26 debate, when she falsely accused Israel’s military of committing a “genocide” in Gaza.
Taking a page out of Democrat radical and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign playbook, Ms. Grijalva went on to decry Israel’s “systematic attack” on Gazans. Her response to the moderator’s questions about events unfolding in Israel was stilted and delivered with unease.
The former member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors was also exposed as having little command of developments in Gaza, as she repeatedly looked at her notes and settled on conveying a litany of far-left talking points.
Ms. Grijalva’s anti-Israel positions aren’t a departure from her father’s record. The late congressman was a progressive congressional fixture and a reliable anti-Israel vote for House Democrats. However, his daughter’s vocal denunciation of Israel conveys a willingness to make targeting the Jewish state a cornerstone of her budding political career and represents a policy pivot for her.
In 2011, upon returning from Israel on a trip sponsored by the pro-Israel American lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Ms. Grijalva took the stage at the group’s National Summit and delivered an emotional testimony about her recent visit to the Jewish state, saying that “supporting Israel is not just a Jewish value, it’s a Latino value.”
Fourteen years later, she’s succumbed to her party’s left-wing ideological capture.
Over the past decade, Ms. Grijalva has steadily transitioned from being a young, pro-Israel rising star to a candidate who appeared, during the Democratic primary, tentative and ambiguous when answering questions about Israel. Her pointed anti-Israel swing in the weeks before the election underscores how progressive Democrats are consolidating control outside deep-blue bastions and emerging in red-leaning regions, like the Grand Canyon State.
It is worth noting that Republicans in Arizona have made significant gains and now outnumber Democrats in registered voters.
While the GOP is in a strong position to redirect the purple state back to red territory, independents still compose over 34% of Arizona’s electorate. Despite Republicans maintaining control of both chambers of the state legislature, Gov. Katie Hobbs is a Democrat.
Ms. Grijalva’s radical rhetoric regarding Israel also isn’t preventing Arizona’s two Senate Democrats, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, from endorsing her. Their support discards the moderate sensibilities they once promised to uphold and highlights the Democrats’ craven commitment, even in a state like Arizona, to appeasing far-left factions within the party. Unsurprisingly, members of the antisemitic Caucus in the House, also known as “The Squad,” are backing Ms. Grijalva, no doubt looking forward to having another ideologically aligned colleague join their ranks.
Politicians like Ms. Grijalva are slowly saturating the Democratic Party. Her political story is unfinished, but her success thus far has been made possible by a weakened liberal establishment and a Democratic electorate overwhelmingly focusing its ire on Israel.
To date, antisemitic lawmakers such as “Squad” members Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan hail from regions where demographic realities are shaping electoral outcomes. Even in New York City, presumptive Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mamdani’s candidacy is bolstered by young transplants with little understanding of what life there was like decades ago, when the city was riddled with crime.
Ms. Grijalva is running to represent a district that, while heavily Democratic, is over 50% Hispanic. It’s not a district teeming with Somali immigrants. Nor is it an area where educated elites are mounting a progressive-driven campaign to oust an establishment figure.
Her rise speaks to the strength of anti-Israel Democrats. It’s a movement that can no longer be explained away as a blue-state danger rooted in the progressive spaces of New York City and Detroit.
The outspoken antisemitic creep is moving West, into places that not too long ago would have been untouchable for a candidate such as Ms. Grijalva.
• Irit Tratt is a writer and former co-chair of the Trump47 National Women’s Leadership Coalition. Follow her on X @Irit _Tratt.
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