It’s nine months into 2025 and there may have been some Arizona politics stories you bookmarked for later but haven’t just yet read them. There’s a lot to keep up with, and The Gaggle gets that.
The year’s most defining story has been President Donald Trump’s first budget of his second term. Congress and the president passed the Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025. It sent more money to borders, less money to Medicaid and served as a statement for Trump’s priorities. These decisions impacted Arizonans directly and it has played out over the last few months.
Arizona has also seen the passing of major political voices like Rep. RaĂşl Grijalva. The contest to replace him after his 22 years in Congress was considered to be a temperature check on what Congressional District 7 wanted in a representative moving forward. His daughter and politician in her own right, Adelita Grijalva, beat out a more centrist candidate and a viral Gen Z candidate in the Democratic primary. Her vision for the future of the district, which covers Tucson and parts of the border, will go up against Republican Daniel Butierez in the mid-September election.
The state’s political parties had in-fighting, an Arizona senator dipped his toe into presidential aspirations by holding events in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Project 2025 unfolded. But how is that all panning out now and what does it mean for the rest of the year?
This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl run through the top stories in Arizona politics so far this year and discuss their long-term impact on Arizona.
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Reach the producer Amanda Luberto at aluberto@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @amandaluberto and on Bluesky @amandaluberto.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: A new Grijalva to Project 2025: Here’s what’s happened in AZ politics
