House Speaker Mike Johnson has sworn in Rep. Adelita Grijalva more than seven weeks after she won a special election in September to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, finally allowing her to assume office and empowering her to add what will be the decisive signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on releasing files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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“I really like this lady. She’s going to be an excellent member of Congress. She’s a great person,” Johnson said, adding, “I promised that we would have the oath administered before we began legislative business, so she hasn’t missed a vote.”
The Speaker long refused to seat Grijalva amid the government shutdown, saying she would not be sworn in until a deal was reached to reopen the government and the House was back in session. The delay, which marks the longest ever in seating a member of Congress following a special election, drew fierce criticism from Grijalva and Democrats.
“This delay never should have never happened in the first place,” Grijalva said in a statement on Monday after learning from House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and news reports that Johnson intended to swear her in at last. “For seven weeks, 813,000 Arizonans have been denied a voice and access to basic constituent services. This is an abuse of power that no speaker should have,” she said.
Johnson called for House members to return to Washington, D.C., once the Senate passed a spending bill to end the shutdown on Monday, after eight Democrats crossed party lines to support the legislation. The deal will temporarily fund the government at current levels, without an extension of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that Democrats had previously insisted must be included in any agreement.
“While I am eager to get to work,” Grijalva said, “I am disappointed that one of my first votes will be on a bill that does nothing to protect working people from skyrocketing premiums, loss of health coverage, or do anything significant to rein in Trump’s abuse of power.”
Grijalva has promised to provide the final necessary signature on the bipartisan petition to release the so-called Epstein files, which some Democrats—including Jeffries, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Grijalva herself—have claimed is the reason Johnson did not swear her in earlier.
“It’s shameful that she has not been sworn in because Speaker Johnson and House Republicans apparently want to continue to hide the Jeffrey Epstein files from the American people,” Jeffries said last month. The following week, Raskin released a statement that claimed “Speaker Johnson is betraying the Constitution to help cover up the Epstein File,” saying Republicans “shut down the government to prevent Adelita Grijalva from being sworn in” and signing the petition.
“This isn’t the first time Speaker Johnson has obstructed the work of the House. Speaker Johnson previously sent the House into an early summer recess, conveniently avoiding action on releasing the Epstein files,” Grijalva wrote in an op-ed for USA Today published last week.
Johnson has denied that his decision was connected to Epstein.
The Speaker has the ability to swear in new members when the House is out of session through “pro forma” sessions, as Johnson did earlier this year in the case of two Republicans, Rep. Jimmy Patronis and Rep. Randy Fine of Florida. But Johnson has declined to do the same for Grijalva, pointing to what he called the “Pelosi precedent,” when three weeks passed between Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan and Republican Joe Sempolinski winning special elections in 2022 and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi swearing them in.
Read more: Arizona Sues as Elected Congresswoman Approaches Longest Swearing-In Delay
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Grijalva sued the House in late October over the delay in swearing her into office, arguing that Johnson did not have the authority to refuse to seat an elected member of the House by keeping the chamber out of “regular session” and that doing so violated both Grijalva’s right to assume office and the state of Arizona’s right to full congressional representation.
“By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation,” Mayes said. “I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy.”
In taking her seat, Grijalva officially replaces her father, Raúl Grijalva, who died of cancer in March while representing the southern Arizona district.
“She fills her father’s shoes or she’s going to try. No one can,” Johnson said after swearing Grijalva in, a point with which she agreed.
“She has a proud family legacy,” the Speaker added, “and we’re delighted to have her here.”