House Speaker Mike Johnson swore Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) into office on Wednesday, 50 days after she won the seat her late father had held, ending a seven-week standoff over Grijalva’s ability to fully represent her roughly 813,000 constituents during a historic government shutdown.
Grijalva entered the chamber for her first official day of work to a standing ovation from her Democratic colleagues, who swarmed the congresswoman-elect for more than 10 minutes to greet her and exchange hugs. They leapt to their feet again as she stepped to the front of the chamber and placed her hand on the bible. She recited the oath to a room filled mostly with her Democratic colleagues. Republican seats were largely empty — first votes weren’t until 5.
House Speaker Mike Johnson swore Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) into office on Wednesday, 50 days after she won the seat her late father had held, ending a seven-week standoff over Grijalva’s ability to fully represent her roughly 813,000 constituents during a historic government shutdown.
Grijalva entered the chamber for her first official day of work to a standing ovation from her Democratic colleagues, who swarmed the congresswoman-elect for more than 10 minutes to greet her and exchange hugs. They leapt to their feet again as she stepped to the front of the chamber and placed her hand on the bible. She recited the oath to a room filled mostly with her Democratic colleagues. Republican seats were largely empty — first votes weren’t until 5.
Grijalva, 55, won her election on Sept. 23, eight days before the government closed on Oct. 1. But Johnson has kept the chamber out of session since Sept. 19 in an effort to pressure Senate Democrats to pass a GOP funding extension. There is no rule against swearing in a member during a pro forma session; earlier this year, Johnson delivered oaths for two Republican members when the House was not in session.
He declined to do that for Grijalva, whose addition to the House is expected to give Democrats the numbers they need to advance a measure demanding the Justice Department release its files on the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Grijalva has vowed to endorse the effort and Democrats have attempted to use that fact to shame Johnson into administering her oath.
He has denied his delay was related to the Epstein petition.
Over the last two months, Grijalva launched a full-scale campaign to pressure Johnson to swear her in. While she remained in political limbo, the constituents of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — including several tribal nations that depend on federal resources — were left without representation in the House as the government shutdown dragged on.
Grijalva vowed to make her battle a public one. She visited Capitol Hill, released a steady stream of social media content and appeared on TV, arguing Johnson’s delays amounted to obstruction. She and other Democrats who charged Johnson with delaying the oath also took their accusations a step further, alleging he was unwilling to reconvene lawmakers because he did not want material related to Epstein made public.
Grijalva’s colleagues rallied behind her: a group of House Democrats marched to Johnson’s office, chanting for her to be sworn in. Two Democratic senators held a news conference outside the speaker’s office. Even a couple Republicans expressed skepticism about Johnson’s delays. “She should be sworn in,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), who was also one of the few Republicans to sign onto the Epstein discharge petition, said during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”
But only when Johnson called members back to D.C. take up the vote to fund the government Wednesday did he schedule her swearing-in.
Grijalva’s expected signature would push the effort led by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), known as a discharge petition, to 218 signatories — a threshold that would force a vote on a bill requiring the release of federal investigative files in Epstein’s case.
House Democrats released several emails from Jeffrey Epstein earlier Wednesday, including one that claimed President Donald Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of his sex trafficking victims. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein case and has dismissed questions probing his past relationship to the financier, who died in his jail cell in 2019.
Grijalva’s father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, held the seat for 12 terms. He was a leader on immigration policy and expanding protection for public lands and a fervent supporter of Indigenous communities.
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