TUCSON. ARIZ. (KGUN 9) — Arizona's 7th District Representative is weighing in on some of the biggest issues in Washington, D.C.
KGUN 9's Executive Reporter Denelle Veselik traveled to Washington, D.C., and caught up with Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who showed her inside her office.
Adelita Grijalva was sworn in last November to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District. She now works out of the same space her father, Raul Grijalva, worked out of before passing away in March of last year.
Her father served as a U.S. representative for over 22 years, and 16 of those years were spent in the office she works out of now. His career in politics started by serving on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board, a path Rep. Adelita Grijalva also followed.
During the visit, she showed me his nameplate from the front door and the desk he used.
"It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. So I thought for the longest time that I had his desk, and I didn't, but they got me his desk," Adelita Grijalva said.
"Like, see the little Sharpie markers all over the place?" Adelita Grijalva said.
"The thing is, like I'm just trying to do the best job that I can do," Adelita Grijalva said.
We discussed what she is quarterbacking for Tucson and District 7, including funding for projects like an interchange in Pima County and the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee.
"We're able to put in 20 proposals. We also signed on an appropriations 163 bills that are funding different projects in Arizona CD7 to say we endorse these projects. So I'm excited about all of those because some of those bills have pieces all over the nation, but some investment in our district," Adelita Grijalva said.
Grijalva also shared her thoughts on the ongoing partial government shutdown.
"So it's a partial shutdown because Republicans refuse to take any steps to rein in ICE and so that has been the biggest hurdle and Democrats have actually put forward proposals to fund TSA, our Coast Guard, all of the other, um, agencies that are held up on this, um, shutdown, but Republicans say that's a no go," Adelita Grijalva said.
When asked about the war in Iran, Grijalva said she would rather see taxpayer dollars spent on the American people.
"We don’t have programs to help starving people in this nation. We don't have money for Medicare and Medicaid. We don't have money for Social Security. There's a list of things that we don't have money for, but we, we spent $11.3 billion in the first six days of this war," Adelita Grijalva said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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