Screengrab via @AdelitaForAZ Twitter (X)
By Ariana Figueroa | AZ Mirror
Outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won her election last month and will become Arizona’s first elected Latina, said the House speaker’s delay in swearing her in was “intentional.”
“This delay is not procedural,” she said, joined by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has repeatedly argued that he’s holding off on swearing in the Arizona Democrat elected last month to fill the seat of her late father, Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year, until Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government. The shutdown now has continued for 15 days.
“She won her election after the House was out of session,” said Johnson, who has kept the House out while the shutdown extends. “That hasn’t been scheduled because we haven’t had that session yet. As soon as (Sen.) Chuck Schumer opens the government…we’ll have that as soon as we get back to business.”
Epstein petition
Johnson has previously sworn in three members when the House was not in session — two Republicans and one Democrat.
But Democrats charge that Johnson is holding off on swearing in Grijalva because she would give Democrats and a handful of Republicans the final vote to compel the Department of Justice to release documents regarding the late sex offender and wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who frequently socialized with the president. Republicans control the House by a slim 219-213 majority.
“Speaker Johnson knows that I will be the 218th signature on the discharge petition,” Grijalva said, referring to a bipartisan petition to force a vote on the measure. “He is doing everything in his power to shield this administration from accountability.”
.@SpeakerJohnson You ready to swear me in? pic.twitter.com/9FHRYUT7RD
— Adelita Grijalva (@AdelitaForAZ) October 15, 2025
