Final updates to this story include quotes from an interview with U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes confirmed Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 21 that her office had filed a lawsuit against House Speaker Mike Johnson for not swearing in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva.
Southern Arizona voters chose Adelita Grijalva to succeed her father, the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva – who represented the state for more than 20 years in Congress.
“People are going to my dad's old office at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, pulling on the door, and nobody's there,” Adelita Grijalva said.
Mayes’s office sent a letter to Johnson last week, giving him a Thursday deadline to provide a date for Grijalva to be sworn in. She spoke with AZPM Monday at a town hall event in Saddlebrooke, Ariz.
“It is completely unacceptable for the people of the seventh Congressional district to be deprived of representation,” Mayes said. “That’s called taxation without representation and we fought a revolutionary war over that.”
Mayes, alongside Adelita Grijalva, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against the U.S. House of Representatives seeking to ensure Ms. Grijalva’s swearing in as a member of Congress following her election last month.
The House’s delay in seating Adelita Grijalva prevents her from signing petitions, sponsoring bills, obtaining and providing information to her constituents about federal programs.
“Nobody could have anticipated me being sucked into this situation that is really unprecedented,” Adelita Grijalva said.
The lawsuit asks that a judge allow other people who are authorized to administer the oath swear in Adelita Grijalva if Johnson refuses.
Democrats, including Adelita Grijalva, have accused Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in to prevent a vote for the release of the U.S. Justice Department files on the sex trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein.
“Speaker Johnson cannot continue to disenfranchise an entire district and suppress their representation to shield this administration from accountability and block justice for the Epstein survivors,” Adelita Grijalva said in a statement Tuesday.
Johnson has denied the accusation and said Monday that he will administer the oath of office to Grijalva after the Senate votes to reopen the government. Tuesday marked the 21st day of a government shutdown.
Grijalva has pledged to back the effort to release the Epstein investigation documents and would be the last signature needed for a petition to force that vote.
Mayes’s office sent a three-page letter to Johnson last week, giving him a deadline of two days to provide a date Grijalva will be seated before the House is back in session. The deadline was not met.
“You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in,” the letter reads.
A total of 102,099 people voted in the special election for Congressional District 7 to replace the late Rep. Raul Grijalva. The turnout rate across six counties was about 23%. Grijalva won with 70,148 votes, which amounted to about 69% of the vote.
“People keep telling me to keep fighting. Don't give up fighting,” Adelita Grijalva said. “This is just another way of me trying to advocate for southern Arizona and what we deserve in representation.”
This is a developing story.
