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He cited his alarm at how poorly the aging Biden performed during a June 27 debate with then-challenger Donald Trump.

“What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race,� Grijalva, a Democrat, told .

“We have to hold onto our majorities in the Senate, build one in the House and hang onto the presidency,� he told the Star’s Tony Davis six days later. “I saw all that in jeopardy.�

Biden went on July 21 to announce he was dropping out of the race.

It’s time for Grijalva, a self-made Tucson political legend, to consider a similar step.

Grijalva, 76, who has served in Congress since 2003, announced in April that he has cancer and came home for treatment. Between Feb. 28, 2024 and Thursday, Jan. 23, he missed 477 out of 490 roll call votes, .

Grijalva announced in October he planned not to run for re-election after the November general. He went on to win re-election handily in November, by almost 27 percentage points, 63.4% to 36.6% over Republican Daniel Butierez in Congressional District 7. The district covers much of central Tucson, stretches west to Yuma, north to Maricopa County and south and east all the way to Douglas.

After his re-election, Grijalva returned in November and cast 11 votes over three days, and returned this month to be sworn in again and voted for Hakeem Jeffries as the Democrats’ House leader. But he has once again stopped voting in a narrowly divided House of Representatives, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 218 to 215, with two other seats vacant.

I’m not sure exactly what Grijalva’s status is. When I asked for an update from his team this week, the reply was: “Congressman Grijalva is following the advice from his medical team with the goal of returning to Washington D.C.�

This is similar to what Grijalva and his aides told me late last year.

I sympathize deeply with him and his family for the condition he’s been in. My own experience has shown me how hard it can be. But, as he noted when Biden was showing frailty, this is a crucial period, as the Trump administration launches into aggressive action.

Even if he were to resign tomorrow, it would be more than six months before the district has a new representative. There is no appointment. Rather, if a vacancy occurs more than six months before a general election, prescribes this process:

— The governor sets a primary election within 72 hours of the vacancy occurring;

— The date of the primary election must be within 120 to 133 days (about four months) of the vacancy occurring;

— The date of the general election must be within 70 to 80 days (about 2 1/2 months) of the primary election.

If Grijalva were to resign soon, the period in which the seat is mostly vacant would extend well over a year and probably approaching 1,000 votes.

That’s not acceptable, of course.

I don’t take pleasure in making this point. I admire the way Raúl Grijalva rose from community activist to school board member to Pima County supervisor to member of Congress. In the process, he built what is now the dominant political organization in the Tucson area.

This remarkable achievement is something that Grijalva’s detractors, of which there are many around here, often miss, because it is so much a part of our political landscape. He built something.

But nothing lasts forever.

Tucson learned this more than 30 years ago when the similarly esteemed local Democratic congressman, Rep. Morris Udall, became unable to carry out his job. Udall had been elected to the House in 1962 and won 13 more elections before becoming incapacitated.

Udall, like Grijalva later, had been the leader of the Democrats on the House Interior Committee. (Since 1993 it’s been called the House Natural Resources Committee.) And as recently happened with Grijalva, Democrats replaced him as leader after his health deteriorated. Udall also said the term beginning in 1991 would be his last, as Grijalva said about this term.

Udall had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and still serving, when he took a bad fall in January 1991.

On March 21, 1991, 2 1/2 months after the fall, the Tucson Citizen editorialized about the situation. “No doubt remains,� the editorial said. “Udall is no longer able to represent the people of southern Arizona. Members of his staff may be capable — but they were not elected to Congress.�

Udall resigned the next month. He lived, hospitalized, until 1998.

I’m not able to say that “no doubt remains� about Grijalva’s inability to represent Southern Arizona. I don’t have enough information to know. That lack of information alone is a problem, as long as he holds the elected position of U.S. representative.

But the information available is not promising, as the hundreds of missed votes show. And these are crucial days, as Grijalva himself said when he called for Biden to drop out, seeking to avoid the Trump presidency that is now in swing.

If Grijalva is unlikely to be able to return full time to D.C. and resume voting, he should resign as soon as possible, to start the clock running toward the special election. It’s what the residents of CD 7 deserve, and the times call for.