Grijalva, Raúl M. (Raúl Manuel), 1948-

<p>Raúl Grijalva began his career in public service as a community organizer in Tucson. Four decades later, he continues to be an advocate for those in need and a voice for the constituents of his home community. From 1974 to 1986, Raúl served on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board, including six years as Chairman. In 1988, he was elected to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where he served for the next 15 years, chairing the Board for two of those years. Raúl resigned his seat on the Board of Supervisors in 2002 to seek office in Arizona’s newly created Seventh Congressional District. Despite a nine-candidate primary and the challenge of being outspent three-to-one by his closest competitor, Raúl was elected with a 20-point victory, thanks to a diverse coalition of supporters that led the largest volunteer-driven election effort in Arizona.</p>

<p>Throughout his career, Raúl has always fought for underrepresented voices. The passions that drove him as a School Board member to fight for and succeed at implementing bilingual education in Arizona are the same passions that motivated him to help pass the first bond package containing a $10 million commitment to reinvest in older, poorer neighborhoods while he was a County Supervisor. Likewise, they are what drive him today as he fights to reform our broken immigration system, ensure livable wages for American workers, and create vital land protections to safeguard our nation’s natural treasures for the next generation.</p>

<p>In 2018, Raúl became Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee. He also serves on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and is the Chairman Emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as a long-standing member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.</p>

<p>Raúl Manuel Grijalva (/rɑːˈuːl ɡrɪˈhælvə/; born February 19, 1948) is an American politician and activist who has served as the U.S. Representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 7th from 2003 to 2013, includes the western third of Tucson, part of Yuma and Nogales, and some peripheral parts of metro Phoenix. Grijalva is the dean of Arizona's congressional delegation.</p>

<p>Raúl Grijalva's father was a migrant worker from Mexico who entered the United States in 1945 through the Bracero Program and labored on southern Arizona ranches. Grijalva was born on Canoa Ranch, 30 miles south of Tucson. He graduated from Sunnyside High School in 1967 and is a 2004 inductee to the Sunnyside High School Alumni Hall of Fame. He attended the University of Arizona and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology.</p>

<p>Grijalva was an Arizona leader of the Raza Unida Party. According to Armando Navarro's history of the party, "Grijalva was so militant that he alienated some members of Tucson's Mexican-American community. After losing in his first bid for elective office, a 1972 run for a seat on the school board, he began to cultivate a less radical image."</p>

GRIJALVA, Raúl M., a Representative from Arizona; born in Tucson, Pima County, Ariz., February 19, 1948; graduated from Sunnyside High School, Tucson, Ariz.; B.A., University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., 1986; member of the Tucson, Ariz., Unified School Board, 1974-1986; Pima County, Ariz. supervisor, 1989-2002; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Eighth and to the nine succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2003-present); chair, Committee on Natural Resources (One Hundred Sixteenth and One Hundred Seventeenth Congresses).