TUCSON, Ariz. — Daniel Butierez started the night of the special election hoping to become the first Republican to represent Arizona's Seventh Congressional District in Washington.
However, just fifteen minutes after results started rolling in, Butierez stood in front of the about a hundred people gathered at his watch party and conceded the election.
"OK, it's bad," he said, laughing at the results. "Where I'm at right now, the way I'm looking at this is if the homelessness out there is what the city wants, then the homeless out there is what the city's going to get."
The result, though disappointing to Butierez, wasn't a surprise. CD7 has been a safe Democratic stronghold since it was first drawn after the 2000 census.
Butierez says he spent much of his campaign reaching out to Third Party and Democratic voters, even inviting the third party candidates to his primary election party in July.
Though Butierez said he and his team—made up of volunteers from all over the political spectrum— put up "a heck of a fight." He said he didn't feel like the Arizona or National GOP was behind him.
"I didn't get enough support from the Republican party itself," he said, adding that he did feel overwhelming support from Republican constituents.
Pima County GOP Chair Kathleen Winn said that lack of support is because of the district's long Democratic history.
"We as the Pima County GOP gave him a lot of support," she said. "He was housed in our headquarters. We provided volunteers, but NRCC (The National Republican Congressional Committee) looks at the numbers, and they go 'there are this many registered Democrats; there's this many registered Republicans. We're not going to put money into that race."
Though Winn hopes there will be a future for Republicans in CD7.
"At the end of the day, we fight every race" she said. "I love that we had three candidates in the primary, that we are fielding candidates for these races. It tells me that we as a party are thriving."
Butierez hasn't completely ruled out another run. Before running in the special election, Butierez says he filed a statement of interest for the 2026 election withe the Secretary of State.
He told KGUN 9 he wasn't sure of his next steps and would be taking the next few weeks to "drive around the state picking up signs" with his wife, who he said he had to talk with before making a decision to run—or not to run—again.
