U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to Congress by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Wednesday.
Johnson swore in Grijalva around 4:10 p.m. local time. Grijalva referenced the Republican speaker’s weeks-long delay of the ceremony in her first speech after the oath.
“This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing-in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons,” she said to applause from House Democratic lawmakers.
Grijalva, a Democrat, decisively won a September special election in Arizona’s 7th congressional district. The House of Representatives had passed a short-term funding bill four days before her victory. Since then, Johnson kept the legislative body largely dormant during a government shutdown and said he’d swear in Grijalva after the government reopens. That reopening appeared in sight Wednesday as the House prepared to take up a funding deal struck by Senators over the weekend, representing a major step towards ending the shutdown.
Grijalva has accused Johnson of delaying her swearing-in because she would supply the final signature needed to force a vote on releasing U.S. government files on late financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She repeated that assertion Tuesday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Johnson has dismissed the claim, presenting the delay as a procedural issue relating to the shutdown.
“I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files,” Grijalva said in her first House floor remarks Wednesday.
She did so the same day.
Grijalva struck a serious tone in the remarks, saying “our American promise is under serious threat.”
“Basic freedoms are under attack, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing, babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents,” she said.
Earlier, she said she would vote against the funding deal struck by Senators over the weekend.
“I’m also really frustrated and upset, and frankly pissed, that my first vote is going to be one that does nothing to make healthcare more affordable for you,” she said to Instagram followers in a Tuesday post.
Arizona officials react to Grijalva’s swearing-in.##
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero wrote to AZPM that she is “celebrating” Grijalva’s swearing-in.
“She will carry the priorities of Southern Arizona with her to Congress where she will fight for working families, access to healthcare, better jobs and worker protections, our public schools, our public lands, and housing affordability,” Romero wrote in a statement.
“The fact that she was not sworn in for over seven weeks, leaving CD07 without representation in Congress, is unacceptable. Speaker Johnson and the Republicans in Congress failing to seat a duly-elected representative to Congress is without precedent and must never be allowed to occur again,” Romero wrote.
Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani wrote to AZPM that he has been “vocal about ending the federal government shutdown and having Adelita be sworn-in.”
Ciscomani told AZPM News last month that the onus for swearing in Grijalva was on Arizona’s two Democratic Senators, who had been voting against the House-passed stopgap funding bill.
“As the only two Representatives from Southern Arizona, I look forward to working with Congresswoman Grijalva to prioritize Southern Arizona’s unique needs,” Ciscomani wrote in his Wednesday statement.
Grijalva was introduced in Congress Wednesday by Arizona U.S. Rep Paul Gosar, a Republican.
“As she follows her late father’s footsteps — and boy, those are some footsteps, especially with those bolo ties — I have no doubt she will bring to the halls of Congress the same energy that has defined her years of public service,” Gosar said.
From 2003 until his death in 2025, Grijalva’s father Raúl Grijalva represented much of her current district, which was redistricted twice during that time. Adelita Grijalva served for 20 years on the Tucson Unified School District’s board and for four years on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
