"Deficit of representation": How money — and the lack of it — discourages working-class Democrats

In the wake of the Democratic Party's spate of electoral losses, a new flock of Democratic candidates is striving to revolutionize the nation's politics ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Political strategist and content creator Deja Foxx is hoping to spearhead that revolution in Arizona this summer. Just over a month ago, the 25-year-old reproductive rights activist and former Kamala Harris campaign staffer announced her bid for the seat of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who died in March. A special election is set for Sept. 23.

Her grassroots campaign faces an uphill battle, in terms of both fundraising and competition from a slate of challengers in the state's July 15 Democratic primary, among them Grijalva's daughter, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva. In a Democratic stronghold like Arizona's 7th Congressional District, the primary winner is likely headed to Washington.

But Foxx is unfazed. Through a patently Gen Z mix of social media influencing, retail-politicking charisma and grassroots activist grit, she appeals to prospective voters through trendy TikToks and candid storytelling about the ups and downs of her fledgling campaign. After all, she didn't pick politics, politics picked her, she declares in her campaign announcement video.

Her upbringing in Tuscon — growing up relying on public assistance, experiencing homelessness and working nights to support herself and her mother — and watching politicians threaten the resources she needed pushed her into the activism that would launch her political career. While the nation first learned of her in 2017, when a video of her confronting then-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., over his support for defunding Planned Parenthood went viral, she hopes that Arizonans will soon see her as the progressive fighter in Congress she said she aims to be.

"What we are doing is convincing folks, reminding them of their collective power, that when everybody takes a small action, it has a big difference," she told Salon in a video call, arguing that people have lost sight of that power under the chaos of the Trump administration and a political process that privileges the uber wealthy. "Our campaign is about a long-term strategy for the party and the political system that Gen Z is going to inherit, and part of that is reminding people that their collective power matters."

At times with tears in her eyes as she recalled stories of people who've told her her campaign has galvanized them, Foxx spoke with Salon about why she decided to run for Congress, the challenges of being a young, progressive candidate, and how she's building a campaign strategy model that will work for young working-class people in a political landscape stacked against them.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You are by no means a stranger to politics. You've been in reproductive rights and grassroots activism since you were a teenager, and delving into political strategy and influencing. So I wanted to know, why did you decide that now is the time to run for office, and not just any office, but federal office?

To your point, I have been in this work a decade, despite only being 25. And I got my start at a very local level, fighting my school board for better sex ed because I needed it, because I didn't have parents at home to fill in the gaps of a curriculum that was updated in the 80s, that didn't mention consent, that was medically inaccurate. But as we look ahead, I organized under Trump administration one. I showed up to town halls of Republicans here in Arizona that tried to deny funding to Planned Parenthood Centers, funding that I relied on when I had no parents and no money and no insurance. I showed up on the steps of the Supreme Court to protest the appointment of Supreme Court justices like Amy Coney Barrett, who were pushed through at the time, really, in the middle of a presidential election.

When I look to this moment now and the effects of seeing things like Roe v. Wade overturned, feeling like we are further behind on our issues than when even I started, I feel a great sense of responsibility, and it's what brings me to this run for office. I feel a sense of responsibility to young people who deserve a fighter and a champion who's going to make sure that they have the ability to afford rent and groceries, that when they save up their paychecks, they're able to move out of their parents houses, and maybe, I don't know, one day buy a house, even though they didn't start saving in third grade or whatever — you know that meme, where it's like, "I shouldn't have been in third grade. I should have been saving for a house." I feel a great sense of responsibility to those young people who deserve a future they can look forward to, one free from the threat of climate change, one in which, no matter what state they live in, they can make decisions about if and when to start their families, and where they can afford the basics and a shot at getting ahead.

And — and this is maybe a bit of a surprise — I feel a deep sense of responsibility to older generations who have fought for the rights that made it possible for me to get access to that birth control, which was not a given, to become the first of my family, to go to college as a first-generation American, someone raised by a single mom. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to those older folks who in this moment, I meet them at their doors and at the protests here on the ground in Arizona. I had a conversation with a woman the other night who was nearly brought to tears talking about the overturn of Roe v. Wade and how scary it is for her that the things she fought for are being overturned, and she may not live to see them reinstated. They are so hungry for a champion, too, someone who is young and has the energy to keep up their fight.

The last thing I'll add here is that we are in a moment in which a 34-count convicted felon is in the White House; where Elon Musk, a billionaire, is calling families like mine the "Parasite Class" on Twitter. We are not in normal times. Like this is the alternative timeline, my friends. Like we need to be taking action right now. ... If you're not seeing these leaders — and it is a stretch to call these men leaders — if you're not seeing these folks and asking yourself "Why not me?" then you're asking the wrong questions.

Thinking about that — you say you have a responsibility to young people, older folks — what message do you have for other young people, especially other people who are working class, who have a similar experience to you, who feel like running for office may be out of reach for them, even if it's something that they might want to do?

You don't just feel that way. That's a fact, right? If you feel like running for office is out of reach for you, as a young, working-class person, you're being clear-eyed. You are seeing it as it is. There are so many barriers to running as a young, working-class person. I put out a Substack post about this recently. From the very beginning of this process, I had to doxx myself, which is a barrier enough for most of the young women I know to stay out of this work. And then you move on to something like fundraising, where the traditional wisdom on campaigns, strategies, have been built for a very particular kind of candidate: old, rich, white men. So the idea that you should call all your friends and family and ask them for money to start your campaign works a whole lot better when you are not the friend or family member that people call for money, which is the reality for so many of us. And then, when you think about what it takes, what it costs to just live while running for office, that is a barrier that feels insurmountable for most of us who are just one car breakdown away from not making rent.

But what I want those young folks to know is that, one, they have a fighter in me. And, two, that I am doing this to win — full stop, period — to be their fighter and to expose those truths; to make it clear to people what the barriers to participation are and to give them new strategies and new road maps to get out there and take up leadership. We're invested in new ways of doing things, whether that's fundraising on platforms like Instagram and TikTok and Substack. We're building strategies that simply don't exist, that are better suited to candidates like us, and they won't replace every piece of traditional campaign knowledge, but they are suited to a different kind of candidate, who's more reflective of our generation and our upbringings.

What I'll add here is that even though the barriers are high, I think about how some people have criticized me for not having the right kind of experience, never having run for state or local office, never having held a position at the state [legislature] or school board. But it's worth pointing out that our school boards are unpaid. Our state legislators, they make $24,000 a year ... If we make underpaid and unpaid labor a prerequisite to leadership, we are going to continue to be in a deficit of representation when it comes to age and economics. What we need, now more than anything, is people who get it. Our policy would look different if we had people in power who had made hard decisions in the grocery checkout line — people like us. But, instead, we have people like Donald Trump who have never even done their own grocery shopping, and that is because of the systems built around our elections and the barriers to participate.

Right. And there's a plethora of criticism about the Trump administration, about President Trump, about everyone in his cabinet. But I'm also curious about the other side of things, with the Democratic Party, which you're running under. We saw a consensus that the 2024 election was largely a referendum on its failure to appeal to its base in favor of swinging more conservative, to appeal to moderate voters. Given your work as a political strategist, having worked on the Harris campaign as well, what changes do you think the Democratic Party needs to be making?

I'm almost going to go all the way back to your first question to answer this question, which was when I was deciding if I wanted to get into this race. I had only a week or so because this is a special election, and I had to make calls to my family and friends to make sure that they were going to stay 10 toes down in my corner no matter what; that my support system was locked in with me. And I had to do the hard work of making sure that I could sustain this financially; that I could handle this on a safety level, even both physical and mental well-being.

I have worked the back end of campaigns. I've supported candidates and causes as a strategist throughout the years, and on the other side as a surrogate, as a content creator, someone who spoke at the 2024 [Democratic National Convention]. I have been on both sides and I could not, in good faith, continue my work either behind-the-scenes or in front of the camera on behalf of this party unless I gave people something to get excited about, someone they could put their hopes on. Because in this moment, our party is picking predictability over possibility and failing to meet the moment. So to your question of what do we need to do to get out of this, I had two big learnings coming out of 2024: one, age matters. We saw that with [President Joe] Biden at the top of the ticket. Age was a central conversation, and we need younger leaders — I am brought to this election because, unfortunately, my member of Congress passed away while in the seat.

The second thing that I learned while on the 2024 run is that primaries matter. There was an absolute sense that people didn't have a choice, that they felt left out of the process, and when I look at an opportunity like this in my district, a district that has been held for the last 22 years by a true progressive icon, I'll note, but basically my entire lifetime, and we have a safe blue seat, which will likely be decided by a primary that is about 100 days long, and depending on who sits in the seat, could be held for another few decades, it is our responsibility to give people in this district a good race. That is a long-term strategy, and it is the long-term strategy that Democrats need to be adopting. Instead of being scared of primaries, we need to be welcoming people like me into the fold, who are sticking our heads up to lead and engaging new people.

I had a man the other day on the street tell me — he stopped me. I didn't know him. He had seen our launch video, seen himself in it, and told me about how he was hoping to get his rights restored in time to vote for us in this election. Just the other day, three additional volunteers showed up to our canvas, our door knock, who found us on Tiktok, who had never knocked doors for a candidate before. When we collected signatures, half of our signature gatherers had never gathered signatures for a candidate or a cause before. We are bringing in people in a special election primary in Arizona, who otherwise have been left out of this process. When I think about what does the party need to be doing? We need to be embracing primaries and our democratic process, letting people feel — not letting them, but rather engaging people in the space between big elections and embracing candidates like me who offer something different for this party. Not every candidate can use digital media, new media, effectively. Our campaign has gained 4 million views since launch, totally organic, good storytelling, not $1 of paid [advertising] behind it because we know how to use these platforms to reach people and how to tell a good story.

Our party, instead of pushing people like me out, calling us an outsider, putting up institutional and establishment barriers, needs to be welcoming people like us in because we are the solution to that 20-something percent approval rating of our party.

Bouncing off something you just said a few moments ago, that the Democratic Party is establishing institutional barriers, has labeled you and other candidates an outsider. Can you talk a little bit more about what that has looked like, and what this past month of your campaign has looked like as well?

There's so much excitement on the ground. I'll be honest with you, as we knock these doors — and we've knocked hundreds — most people don't even know this election is happening. That's the fact. And I think it scares some people that we are attracting viral attention week after week to this election because it makes it harder to predict. Because when more people participate — and people are betting on a low-turnout election in which they can just invest in high-efficacy voters, and get away with that — it scares people and it changes people's strategies and challenges them to do something differently.

I'll also share, on a personal level, that for people like me, who are first-time candidates, who are working-class, we are not supposed to rise to these positions of leadership. I was raised by a single mom and, like, it's just a fact that I don't have some of the same advantages as other people in my race. You know, I think about how just the other day, the former congressman's team gave his daughter his fundraising and email list, which is a major advantage in this race, and it's just one of those ways that we are seeing selection politics at play. And it's not to say that the other folks I'm running against haven't worked hard or are not qualified for this role, but it is to point out that there is a difference in terms of privileges and advantages here that come from legacy last names and legacy politics.

What we do here in southern Arizona is going to have effects for the entire country in the 2026 midterms, in which young people are going to stick their head up and lead. What we do here now in the next 70-something days, maybe 60-something by the time this article comes out, is going to have effects on what young people are recruited to run, who is funded, who is endorsed. I want people to feel a sense of urgency around my race — our race — because it has the opportunity to affect all of these other races come 2026, and I promise you that if we win, and we win big, and we prove concept out here in southern Arizona that young progressive disruptors are winners, we will have better options come 2026 and 2028.

Thinking about your vision as a candidate, what has been the response on the ground when you're going and knocking on doors, the comments you're getting on your various posts, both in terms of general reactions and receiving those donations? My understanding is that you're also not necessarily tied currently to any large organization to get those large donors.

It's a balance, for sure, on the fundraising side, but you're right to say we're doing things differently. The response at the doors and online is what keeps me going when the response in D.C. is so mild, to say the least. I feel so energized knocking doors, in part, because that's my bread and butter. ... When people describe how they feel about our political process in this moment — Democrats in particular — the words are, by and large, negative. They feel hopeless. They feel left out. They feel discouraged, disheartened, disappointed, and so it cannot be understated that every door I knock, people leave feeling excited. That is a service to our party and our democracy as a whole. We are doing good work just by the nature of being in this race. And I've found that, like I said, at the doors, most people don't know this election is happening. So anybody who wants to tell you that someone has it in the bag is wrong, and this is the kind of election that could be decided by just a handful of votes. Every conversation counts.

I'll share that people have been quick to discredit what we're doing online — those 4 million organic views on videos that make the political process, frankly, more transparent and feel more human — but we're seeing it have effects on the ground. ... I was at a Sunlink stop, which is one of our kinds of public transportation near the [University of Arizona's] campus in our district, and a girl stopped me and told me that her sister had sent her our videos and that her sister was like, tell all of your friends that they need to vote for this girl, and she asked if we could take a picture to send to her sister. What we are doing online is translating on the ground. And frankly, what we are doing on the ground is translating online. Each and every one of our videos is clips of us knocking the doors. I think about how just the other day, one of our volunteers that came out, Berta, she told me she had never volunteered for a political candidate before, but that she was tired of just critiquing things and wanted someone she could get behind to help build something better. So she found us on Tiktok, and she showed up to knock the doors for the very first time, and her and I walked around for three hours and knocked doors and had incredible conversations.

So what I'm hearing on the doors and in the streets is, one, most people don't know this election is happening yet. We need to put ourselves in the mind of the voter and remember that for them, July is a long way away. They still got to pay June's rent. Like, let's be clear. The other thing is that, when they hear about us, when they hear our story, which is the American Dream's story, when they know that they have the shot to make history, to elect the first woman of our generation, my generation, they are excited about politics. In this moment, I can't stress enough how difficult it is to move people from hopelessness and disappointment to excitement, and our campaign is doing that.

Last big question for you, so thank you for all of your time. Bouncing off of that — you've been able to appeal, it sounds, to so many people who otherwise might be disaffected voters right now. But we also talked about being up against a number of other Democratic primary candidates, including the late representative Raul Grijalva's daughter, Adelita Grijalva. As you said, who wins this primary is an indicator of how the election itself will go because this is a long-standing Democratic district. Why should Arizona voters who don't know about you, Arizona voters who are on the fence about you, vote for you? What do you have planned for them?

The way we have been doing things isn't working, and I am the only break from the status quo in this race. They deserve more than a career politician in office. They deserve someone who, when they go to D.C., will fight on their behalf, and I have proved over the last decade that I am a fighter. And the final thing I'll say is that I am comfortable with using the power of this safer and bluer seat to stand up on their behalf, to stand up to the Trump administration. They have my commitment that I will not fold. ... That's my message to voters here in southern Arizona, that if you feel like the way things have been going isn't working, if you're unhappy with the state of this country as it stands, then we're going to need to do things differently, and I'm the candidate to do it.

I want to offer a hopeful message to end, too, which is that there is so much to fight against in this moment, and they have my assurance that I will fight at every at every point. However, we have so much to look forward to. As a young candidate, the future is not theoretical to me. I am fighting to build something better that me and my generation can inherit, and I see a world in which we can build something better. This campaign is about offering that hope.