About Raúl

Raúl Grijalva speaks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives

In his third term as a Member of Congress, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva remains committed to the needs of his constituents in Congressional District 7. 

Raúl has gained a solid base of enthusiastic supporters because of his exceptional record of public service within his district. From 1974 to 1986, Raúl served on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and became known as an advocate for teacher and employee rights, civil rights, and public education. Raúl continued to work towards the improvement of these conditions when he was elected in 1988 to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where he served until 2002.

As a Supervisor, he continued his work on employee rights and became a champion for the public health system, particularly to ensure Kino Hospital remained open to serve the poor and working families of Pima County.  In addition, he further advanced the community through his creation and implementation of the Sonoran Desert Preservation Plan; an innovative approach to species and habitat protection in concert with land use planning in the community.

As the U.S. Representative of the newly created Congressional District 7 of Arizona, education, employee rights and the environment remain among his top policy concerns.

As a member of the Committee on Education and Labor, Congressman Grijalva will be making the reform and full funding of No Child Left Behind his top educational priority for the 110th Congress. His previous work in the committee helped to fund early childhood & preschool programs and improve the consistently underfunded education system. He has successfully worked to improve funding to Migrant and Seasonal Head Start, and improve outreach and services to Limited English Proficient children and their families. He worked to improve the quality of life for working family issues by supporting and promoting minimum wage increase and legislation to prevent intimidation and provide for greater access to working people to organize to represent themselves in the workplace.

Raúl is also a member of the Committee on Natural Resources, where he has been appointed Chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. The Subcommittee oversees 600, 000 million acres of federal land.  Within weeks of attaining the position, he denounced the proposal to sell our public lands laid out in the 2008 federal budget. In his new role as Chairman, he will play a major role in seeking funding for the backlog of funds needed to address the maintenance funding shortfall for our public lands. He will be working with the full committee to address reform of the General Mining Law of 1872, passage of needed wilderness protection throughout the west and oversight of the operations of our national parks, forests and public lands systems.

His commitment to an improved environment and policy to protect it is also seen through by his leadership in several key Congressional caucuses, including Co-Chair of the Congressional National Landscape Conservation System, and the Environment Task Force Caucus, which he chaired from 2003 to 2006.

Raúl Grijalva addresses parents regarding Head Start Funding

In the 110th Congress, Raúl also serves on the Committee on Small Business, where he helps to empower small business owners and entrepreneurs.  Raúl also plays several leadership roles throughout Congress; he serves as 1st Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and was recently appointed Senior Whip for the Majority Whip’s Operation.

Raúl’s other priorities for the 110th Congress include beginning of the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq and return to their families and loved ones. He will continue to make affordable health care for all a priority.  He will again support an aggressive approach to increasing the use of alternative fuels, increased CAFÉ standards for trucks and SUV’s, and increasing our capacity to generate electricity and energy from fossil fuel based technologies.  As a response to protecting domestic security, Raúl co-sponsored the legislation to implement the recommendations made by the 9/11 National Commission on Terrorism.

Raúl was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. His father emigrated from Mexico in 1945 as a bracero, a laborer brought in by the U.S. government, to help offset the loss of skilled American ranch hands serving in World War II. Raúl's parents stressed the importance of education to their three children. It was that encouragement that led Raúl to his career into public service. 

Raúl and his wife, Ramona, have been married for more than 35 years. They have three daughters: Adelita, Raquel and Marisa, and one granddaughter: Adelina. The contributions of the Grijalva family to the betterment and quality of the community are a career and lifelong commitment.