Seven weeks after winning a special election, Democrat Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into Congress on Wednesday, ending a standoff that left more than 800,000 Arizonans without representation and drew fury from Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson administered the oath just before debate began on a funding bill to reopen the government. Grijalva said it hardly felt real after such a long wait, noting on Monday that one of her first votes would be on a measure “that does nothing for affordable health care for the American people.”
Grijalva won her Sept. 23 special election to succeed her late father, longtime Rep. Raúl Grijalva. But the House had not been in session since Sept. 19, when it passed the GOP’s short-term spending bill. Johnson repeatedly extended what was supposed to be a weeklong recess and brushed off Democratic calls to swear her in during pro forma sessions.
The delay carried major political stakes. Grijalva’s signature completes a petition to force a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files—a move Republican leaders have long tried to block.
“This is unprecedented. It’s undemocratic. It’s unconstitutional. It’s illegal,” she said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight.” “Nobody, no member-elect, should ever be in the situation again where 813,000 people are silenced because one person wants to play politics with their swearing-in.”
Behind the scenes, Grijalva said there was a lot of “chess playing,” while Johnson publicly blamed the government shutdown for the delay. She dismissed that excuse.
“There was no reason I should be in this position,” Grijalva told MSNBC. “The fact that the Senate hadn’t passed the CR [continuing resolution] has nothing to do with me.”
Democrats privately accused Johnson of trying to buy time to peel away GOP support for the Epstein measure. Grijalva agreed, saying she believed her swearing-in was delayed “to give Speaker Johnson more time to try to convince one of those four Republicans to take their name off” of the petition.
Once she signed the petition on Wednesday, it hit the 218-member threshold needed to bypass leadership and force a vote—a direct challenge to Johnson’s control of the floor.
Grijalva called the measure a “vote of values,” saying it tests whether lawmakers are willing to stand up to power.
“Are you going to protect people who committed pedophilia and raped children and women?” she asked. “Or are you going to say, undeniably, that’s abhorrent and we’re not going to stand by anyone who committed those kinds of crimes?”
Over the course of the standoff, Johnson kept changing his story. At first, he said he would swear in Grijalva “as soon as she wants.”
Later, he blamed scheduling issues and leaned on what he called precedent, pointing to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 25-day delay in swearing in GOP Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana in 2021. But Democrats countered that two Florida Republicans were sworn in during a pro forma session in April, just one day after their special elections.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes even sued last month to force Johnson’s hand, arguing that his inaction violated the state’s constitutional right to representation.
After weeks of deflection, Johnson has finally relented. Grijalva took the oath, reclaiming Arizona’s 7th District seat and restoring Democrats’ full strength in the House.
In the end, the standoff ended exactly where it began: with Johnson giving in.
Alex Samuels November 13, 2025 at 01:00AM From Daily Kos
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