Rep. Raul Grijalva and Daniel Wood face off in 3rd Congressional District race debate

On this special election 2020 edition of “Arizona Horizon,” two candidates faced off for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District. The district covers all of Santa Cruz County, Pima, Pinal and Yuma counties. The debate was a joint effort hosted by Arizona PBS, The Arizona Republic and KJZZ. Democratic incumbent Raul Grijalva and Republican challenger Daniel Wood went head to head in a debate moderated by “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons, Arizona Republic politics reporter Maria Polletta and KJZZ host Steve Goldstein.

In their opening statements, the opponents summarized their goals and qualifications for the office.

In alphabetical order, Daniel Wood went first:

“Thank you for having me. Thank you for letting me debate with Raul Grijalva. I appreciate your time. I come to you as a Marine Combat Veteran, former law enforcement officer, and a current executive protection agent, and come running for U.S. Congressional District 3 because I’m seeing what this country is going through right now and I’m scared. Fighting in Iraq, and I see the destruction in the cities and seeing career politicians not doing anything about it, and I’m ready to say ‘enough is enough.’ I want to fight for this country, and I want to fight for school of choice, and human trafficking and affordable healthcare, and I want to fight for the American people and let them know that there is someone here other than career politicians.”

Then incumbent Raul Grijalva gave his opening statement:

“Thank you very much. I want to thank the support I have had in the past and thank my opponent for being here and sharing his time. This country, and as we come out of this darkness that we’re in, the COVID-19 pandemic, things are going to change. The status quo of how we have had things in the past are not going to apply to the recovery and the rebuilding this nation is going to need and I want to serve in the leadership role that I have in Congress to make sure the people of Arizona and the people in this nation are fully invested in issues like jobs, issues like the environment, climate change and how they are all dealt with because they are all tied together. This pandemic has exposed a lack of leadership at a national level and it has exposed the disparities that we have in this nation and we need to address them. We need to address them quickly and urgently; that’s the biggest chore ahead of use for anybody who gets elected.”

Topics for the debate included:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• Immigration
• Economy
• Support for President Trump