Arizona Congresswoman Elect Still Not Sworn In

November 4th, 2025
James Savin

Democratic Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva has not yet been sworn into office despite having been elected more than a month ago. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is refusing to perform the ceremony while the shutdown continues. When Grijalva is sworn in, she will be the deciding vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files, which has led critics of Johnson’s decision to believe his refusal to swear her in is an attempt to block the files’ release. Grijalva is pursuing legal action, citing a violation of Arizona’s constitutional right to representation.

Grijalva won Arizona’s deep blue 7th Congressional district in a landslide on September 23 with 70.6% of the vote. She ran to replace her late father, Raul Grijalva, who passed away in office this past May. When sworn in, she would be the 218th and final vote needed in favor of releasing the Epstein files, which the Republican party has made significant efforts to keep closed.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is delaying swearing Grijalva in until the current government shutdown has ended. Speaker Johnson had originally told CNN that, “we’ll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants.” He has since backtracked on this statement, refusing to swear her in until her party agrees to a stopgap bill. Grijalva has waited for a record–breaking 42 days as of the time of publishing to gain control of her seat.

Speaker Johnson has said that between now and her being sworn in, she has all the rights and privileges of a member of Congress—barring the ability to vote on the floor, which he argues is unnecessary at this point anyway, given the ongoing government shutdown.

This is false—While Grijalva has the keys to her office, she can do nothing with it. Without being officially sworn in, her power is extremely limited. She’s unable to access the MAR, or Members’ Representational Allowance, which would allot her $1.9 million a year to pay her staff and cover expenses. She has no House email, no House phone number, nor an official Representative website. Grijalva has had to use her personal resources to pay for flights to and from D.C. Further, she’s been forced to forfeit $17,000 thus far of her annual salary as a Representative. She is not able to bypass security like other members when she visits Congress, because she has not been issued a House ID and lapel pin verifying her as a member.

"I remember on election night, someone came up to me and said, 'I don't think they're going to swear you in because of those Epstein files,'" Grijalva says. "And I thought, 'oh my gosh, that's very much a conspiracy theory. Like that's not going to happen.' And here we are."

Many Democrats have come to the conclusion that Speaker Johnson is refusing to swear her in because the Republicans don’t want the Epstein files to be released. Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego, from Arizona, accused Johnson of “protecting pedophiles,” in an exchange outside the Speaker’s office. Speaker Johnson dismissed this claim, calling it, “totally absurd.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on October 14th wrote to Speaker Johnson demanding that Grijalva be seated, or otherwise that the state of Arizona would pursue legal action. She alleged that Speaker Johnson’s refusal to swear her in was a violation of Arizona’s constitutional right to representation, writing,

“The effect of your failure to follow usual practice is that Arizona is down a representative from the number to which it is constitutionally entitled. And the more than 813,000 residents of Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District currently have no representation in Congress.”

October 21st, Arizona filed a suit in D.C.’s federal court attempting to force Grijalva’s swearing in. Speaker Johnson has called the lawsuit “patently absurd,” and argued that he was merely “following Pelosi precedent,” saying that Pelosi had also, during past special elections, waited until a recess was completed before swearing a Congressperson in.