Better know your district: CD7
The Fightin’ Seventh! … Bring popcorn and coffee ... And do they have tigers in prison?
We’ve always been huge fans of Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a District” gag, in which the comedian spent roughly 10 years trying to document all 435 U.S. congressional districts.
And as Southern Arizona voters prepare to elect a new member of Congress to represent them for the first time in 22 years in the wake of former U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s death, it seems like an ideal moment to introduce you to Congressional District 7.
We’ve spent some time talking about the candidates already — but the district itself doesn’t get much love.
So today, we’re talking about the “Fighting Seventh” as Colbert might have called it1 — its people, its politics, its camel-related landmarks and how to find Jabba the Hutt’s summer home.
But first, those of you who have been involved in local politics a long time may be more familiar with the old Grijalva district, known as CD3 (circa 2011-2021).
We dug up an old clip offering one of the best “tours” of the district that you could ask for — with a lot of color commentary from Grijalva himself.
The actual district lines haven’t changed much since Grijalva tour-guided his way around the district six years ago.
Broadly, CD7 still stretches from Yuma to the west edge of Tucson, taking in bits of Pinal County and peeking up in the north to the west end of the Phoenix area. It’s anchored in the south by the U.S.-Mexico border, snaking from Yuma to Douglas.
Here’s a map to help.
Ok, on to fun facts!
CD7 has the distinction of being home to both the “Road to Nowhere” and El Camino del Diablo (“Devil’s Highway”), although we don’t recommend the latter without planning ahead.
But perhaps most notably, CD7 contains corners of the Imperial Sand Dunes, AKA the Algodones Dunes, which served as the filming location for Tatooine in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
It is also the supposed grave of the Red Ghost, a folk tale dating back to the 1880s about a demonic-looking camel that terrorized locals, supposedly with a human skeleton strapped to it.
That folk tale caught hold because before the Civil War, the American military bought about 70 camels to deliver to the Yuma area, thinking they would be right at home in the desert.
CD7 is considered a “safe” Democratic district.
In 2024, 63% of its voters chose Kamala Harris, and 36% voted for Donald Trump.
The closest Grijalva ever came to losing a race was 2010 when there were four candidates (including independent and Libertarian candidates who got nearly 3% of the vote). Grijalva won with 50.2% of the vote.
It’s one of two majority-minority districts in Arizona, meaning Latinos make up the bulk of its voters.
CD7 covers almost the entire border — from Yuma to Douglas — and is home to all of Arizona’s land ports of entry. And that border geography comes with a lot of cool history.
Starting in 1971, residents living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Naco would play volleyball over the fence once a year. But that ended in 2007, due to the construction of a taller fence.
César Chávez, the famed civil rights, Latino and farm labor leader, was born just outside of Yuma in 1927.
Local lore says that Pancho Villa once rode his horse up the grand marble staircase in the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas, although whether that actually happened is debatable, and the hotel doesn’t mention it on its website.
As the Democrats running to fill the seat talk about the impacts of the “big, beautiful bill” that will likely impact a number of federally backed programs, CD7 is going to be hit hard.
More than a third of the district, or about 295,000 people, are on Medicaid.
Almost 20% of the district, or 140,000 people, live below the federal poverty line — with the median household income landing at just $61,136.
And more than 13%, or 110,000 people in the district, don't have medical insurance. Another roughly 44,000 are using the ACA to get health insurance.
CD7 is also home to a lot of strange places — from the descriptively named Three Points, to the existentially named Why, Arizona. Many of those places have reinvented themselves over the years.
The former mining town of Bisbee has successfully blended its history and become a haven for artists. Tourists flock to the small town in the district for tours of either the now-closed mine or nighttime ghost tours.
The county-owned Old Tucson Studios was an Old-West-themed film set that transitioned into a tourist attraction.
And if you know anything about Yuma, you know it’s the lettuce capital of the nation. But that’s not the only industry CD7 has to offer.
Estimates say the area’s lettuce trade contributes $4.4 billion to the local economy.
The Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee is now closed, but three mines are still hauling out copper near Green Valley.
From produce to Ford trucks, if it’s hecho en Mexico, it probably comes through one of the district’s three main ports of entry.
Finally, CD7 is home to seven sovereign nations: Ak-Chin Indian Community, Cocopah Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Gila River Indian Community, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Quechan Tribe, and Tohono O'odham Nation.
The 18th-century Mission San Xavier del Bac sits on the Tohono O’odham Nation south of Tucson. The iconic white Dove of the Desert remains unfinished, and the mission’s east tower was never completed.
Taking time to track down 18-year-old copies of “The Colbert Report” is a tedious task, trust us. Upgrade to a paid membership so Joe can dedicate some time to his “lost media” hunt.
No, you’re a bad Democrat: We watched the Congressional District 7 debate between the five Democratic candidates over at Arizona PBS last night. Ted Simons, the managing editor of “Arizona Horizon,” served as both moderator and occasional referee during the hour-long debate. We’re not sure if popcorn pairs well with coffee, but we suggest having both on hand if you’re watching this morning. And Capitol scribe Howie Fischer has the print rundown.
Sonic boom or bust?: A startup hypersonic missile manufacturer is in serious discussions to move their operations to Pima County, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington writes. Castelion Corporation, a California-based weapons manufacturer, was founded in 2022 by former Space-X employees and recently received $100 million in seed funding to build the next generation of missiles. Multiple agencies including Pima County and the City of Tucson said they couldn’t elaborate on ongoing discussions due to signing a nondisclosure agreement, but they were able to get U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly to send a letter to Castelion executives.
Climate change?: Saguaros around Southern Arizona are once again working overtime — producing more flowers than usual and in more “side-blooms” on the cactus. The bumper crop of saguaro blooms also happened in 2021, the Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports, and scientists are still stumped about why it’s happening.
Oak Hole: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a case attempting to stop Resolution Copper from building a massive mine in Oak Flat, which is sacred to the Apache and other Indigenous people, the Arizona Mirror’s Shondiin Silversmith reports. That’s the end of the road for Apache Stronghold, the group that has spent the last decade fighting to preserve the site near the Tonto National Forest. Justices were split on whether to take up the case, with Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas arguing the decision was a mistake.
“Before allowing the government to destroy the Apaches’ sacred site, this Court should at least have troubled itself to hear their case,” Gorsuch wrote, adding that the consequences of the decision “threaten to reverberate for generations.”
Avoiding the DEI detectors: As the Trump administration cracks down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the University of Arizona is putting all its campus resource centers — from African American Student Affairs to the Women and Gender Resource Center — under one roof, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. The new program, which will be known as Campus Community Connections, is the latest of many steps UA officials have taken in recent months to balance the need for inclusive policies and the need to avoid losing federal funding over DEI.
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Zócalo was a hyper-local, independent community glossy magazine showcasing Tucson’s arts, culture, food and entertainment scenes from about 2011 to 2017.
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This really has nothing to do with Tucson except that we saw it on a fake social media account made to lambast a former Tucson City Council member.
But did you know Joe Exotic of “Tiger King” fame (who’s currently serving a 21-year sentence in Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center) is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump?
We didn’t, either!
But if you watched the pandemic-era Netflix show, it’s worth a quick dive into the rabbit hole that is the Life Exotic.
It has only gotten weirder since the lockdowns.
Grijalva actually taped a “Better Know a District” segment with Colbert in 2007, but we cannot find the clip for the life of us. If you have seen a working link, send it our way. Yes, we remember Colbert asking him how much he charged for mustache rides.