Deja Foxx: A Generational Change Agent

Deja Foxx, revving her supporters, June 2, 2025

There's a Democratic primary today in Arizona's 7th Congressional District that could produce an upset -- indicative of the temperature on the Left for a radical changing of the guard. Fox News said this special election (to fill the remaining few months of Congressman Raul Grijalva's term) would provide "a barometer of where the Democratic Party is headed as the party deals with longstanding divisions between its establishment and its outsiders...."

There are five candidates on the ballot, including Raul Grijalva's own daughter, who has the backing of the Democratic establishment, and one big, powerful outsider -- Deja Foxx -- who's suddenly surged in the polls and set off a media storm of attention. Foxx, who is now 25, learned early at the ripe age of 16 to make herself heard, to use her own narrative of homeless struggle to enlighten, galvanize, and motivate an audience. At the age of 16 she went viral in a confrontation with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake over his vote to cut off Federal funding of Planned Parenthood -- at a packed town-hall (memorialized in this video).  She learned the power of commanding an audience, of speaking truth and being wildly applauded for it. She became in short order a well-known political activist and outspoken advocate for women's rights. 

Her own story of poverty, of learning "code switching" between the world of all-white public schools and the spiraling environment created by her single mom, who got into drugs and bad company. (Foxx's mom eventually turned her life around and is now Deja's Number One door-knocker for this campaign). Young Deja says she was forced at age 15 to take the extraordinary step of emancipating herself from her mother. And thus becoming functionally homeless, a kind of camper who depended on the kindness of friends to give her a temporary bedspace. She was for years part of what she calls "the hidden homeless," particularly young people who move from friend to friend to relative and back to friend. 

She learned the power of sharing her story and soon went to Capitol Hill as a teenager to do lobbying work for Planned Parenthood. It was a natural step from there to motivational speaker and social media content producer before she was 20. According to Politico, she's of a class that is peculiar to the 21st Century, savvy young people -- some smart, some beautiful, some both -- like Deja Foxx --finding a voice and building a presence that can become little digital empires with a history of forcing change. "Influencers," indeed.

Her 10-minute campaign autobiography tells it best. It's a compelling story of a survivor who learns her power as a wise narrator of life. I commend it as an authentic story of American struggle and American achievement. 

Foxx has gained nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok and over 245,000 followers on Instagram. "She’s become a real figure in the Democratic Party’s online firmament," doing social media for Kamala Harris’ failed 2020 presidential campaign, appearing at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and helping host the Hotties for Harris party at the convention.

So not surprisingly Foxx has surged in polling. She's attracted a good deal of attention as another AOC. Media attention drives polling (though Deja Foxx is being compared to her, both AOC and Bernie Saunders have endorsed Adelita Grijalva as the birthright candidate). David Hogg has campaigned for Foxx (and damn the Democratic Party establishment that ran that kid off!). Hogg recently stepped down from his position as a Democratic National Committee vice chair after upsetting party leaders for his efforts backing primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue districts (Fox News). His campaigning for Foxx sends a clear message that the rebellion will continue.

Brad Elkins, a longtime Democratic consultant who is advising Foxx’s campaign, marveled that even before the campaign started its advertising, the 25-year-old candidate “couldn’t go anywhere without people recognizing her.”

I'll be looking for those Arizona returns late tonight.

UPDATE

Polling was wrong or at least misleading, and generational change will have to wait in the 7th Congressional Dist. of Arizona. Adelita Grijalva won easily and going away, 60% against four other candidates including Deja Foxx (21%), Grijalva's closest competitor. Will Foxx stay in politics and continue to build a base of Gen Z?