Washington — Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as a member of Congress on Wednesday afternoon, seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona.
House Speaker Mike Johnson administered the oath of office to Grijalva before the lower chamber began debate on a funding bill to reopen the government. The House is set to vote Wednesday even on final passage.
“Fifty days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves — that is an abuse of power,” Grijalva said in remarks on the House floor. “One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons.”
Her criticism of Johnson received rowdy applause from Democrats in the chamber.
Grijalva was elected in a special election on Sept. 23 to fill the seat of her late father, Raul Grijalva, but the House has not been in session since Sept. 19, when it passed Republicans’ short-term measure to fund the government for seven weeks.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has repeatedly extended what was supposed to be a weeklong break after the vote and ignored demands from Democrats to swear in Grijalva, who will be the decisive signature on a petition to force a vote on releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson’s reasons for not swearing in Grijalva have shifted over the last several weeks. During the first week of the shutdown, Johnson said he would administer the oath “as soon as she wants.” But Johnson has also said that it would happen as soon as the House returns, that the delay was the result of a scheduling issue and that his decision to wait was “following the precedent.”
The GOP leader noted that in 2021 it took former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, 25 days to swear in Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana, who won a special election during the pandemic to replace her late husband.
Democrats have countered that two Florida Republicans were sworn in earlier this year during a pro forma session on April 2, a day after they won their special elections.
Arizona’s attorney general filed a lawsuit last month seeking to expedite Grijalva’s swearing-in.
