The son of an immigrant, he represented a majority Hispanic district in Arizona for 12 terms but had lately been absent from Capitol Hill while being treated for cancer.
Representative Raul M. Grijalva, a former political radical who became a Democratic stalwart of Arizona’s congressional delegation and who was one of the most left-leaning lawmakers on Capitol Hill, representing a majority Hispanic district, died on Thursday in Tucson. He was 77.
Mr. Grijalva (pronounced gree-HAHL-vah) disclosed last year that he had lung cancer and would not run for a 13th term in 2026. He died of complications of his treatment, his office said. He was absent from Washington for nearly a year, missing hundreds of votes in the narrowly divided House.
The son of a Mexican immigrant father who labored on Arizona ranches, Mr. Grijalva as a young man was an activist in the Raza Unida Party, a hard-left movement to gain political power for Mexican Americans. He eventually mellowed and became a Democrat, moving up in Tucson politics for nearly 30 years before running successfully for Congress in 2002 at age 54.
In Washington, Mr. Grijalva was an advocate for tough labor and environmental protections, earned an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association and opposed a fence on the Mexico border. He was known for an informal style that favored bolo ties over neckties, and he once offered in jest that his campaign slogan should be “Grijalva: Not just another pretty face.”
A co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus in the House for a decade, Mr. Grijalva was the first member of Congress to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president in 2015. After President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s poor performance in the presidential debate against Donald J. Trump last June, Mr. Grijalva was one of the first House members to call for Mr. Biden to leave the race.