Arizona state officials certified Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva’s special election win on Tuesday, with the state’s attorney general warning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that failure to swear in Grijalva or provide a “reasonable explanation” as to when the ceremony will occur will “prompt legal action.”
Attorney General Kris Mayes demanded Johnson swear in Grijalva “without further delay” in a letter sent on Tuesday and obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Ms. Grijalva was elected with nearly 70% of the vote, and unofficial results were provided to you by the Arizona Secretary of State,” Mayes wrote. “Ms. Grijalva and the State expected that you would follow your usual practice and swear her into office at the earliest opportunity, just as you had done with five previous members elected in special elections.”
But, she wrote, “you and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in. … Arizona’s right to a full delegation, and the right of the residents of CD 7 to representation from the person they recently voted for, are not up for debate and may not be delayed or used as leverage in negotiations about unrelated legislation.”
The letter comes more than two weeks after Grijalva won the special election to succeed her father, the late Rep. Raul Grijalva. Adelita Grijalva and House Democrats have since called on Johnson to swear her in, making her the 214th member of the House Democratic caucus.
Democrats have accused Johnson of delaying her swearing-in because she will also be the 218th and final signature needed for the Jeffrey Epstein bipartisan discharge petition to release the files.
“That should be happening today, by the way, but they’re running scared because of their efforts to hide the Epstein files from the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said during his Tuesday press conference.
Arizona Democrats, including Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), have participated in multiple pro-forma sessions during the government shutdown, demanding that the acting GOP speaker swear in Adelita Grijalva, but they have been ignored each time.
Stanton stood up yet again during the pro-forma session held Tuesday afternoon to demand the speaker swear in the congresswoman-elect, but he was ignored by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), who presided over the session.
Leaving the floor, he showed copies of the certification of Adelita Grijalva’s election win that he held up on the House floor.
“This is fully certified, so there is no reason not to swear her in,” Stanton told reporters.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson again denied that he’s withholding Adelita Grijalva’s swearing-in due to the Epstein files, noting that Republicans are for transparency but want to protect the victims. This has been House GOP leadership’s stance on the discharge petition since Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the petition sponsor, began pushing for the files’ immediate release.
Democrats have pointed to Johnson swearing in Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) the day after winning their special elections in April. The speaker said he did so because that was a pre-scheduled oath of office day, and the House was unexpectedly called out of session.
“[Grijalva],” Johnson said, “won her election after the House was out of session, so we have not had a full session. She deserves to have all the pomp and circumstance that everybody else does.”
He added that it took Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 25 days to swear in Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), who won a special election in 2021 to replace her husband, who had died.
“No Democrats jumped up and down and screamed about that, nor do I recall any Republicans, because everyone understood, this is the process of the House. You do it as soon as you’re able to do it,” the speaker said.
“We’ll have that as soon as we get back to business, but we have to get back to business. We have to open the government. I don’t know how else I can answer that question,” Johnson added.
Stanton said whether Adelita Grijalva wants a “big audience” for her swearing-in is “her decision to make.”
“She wants to be sworn in to work for the people now, and if she’s willing to forgo the pomp and circumstance, she should be sworn in now and go to bat for the people of Arizona and her district right now,” Stanton said.
JOHNSON AND ARIZONA DEMOCRATIC SENATORS SPAR OVER SWEARING IN ADELITA GRIJALVA
Adelita Grijalva said in a statement that Arizona’s state officials did their job certifying her election win and “now it’s time for Speaker Johnson to do his.” She said he has “exhausted” every excuse to delay the ceremony and she wants him to abide by the precedent set by Fine and Patronis’s swearing-ins.
“The cost of his obstruction is the silencing of over 800,000 southern Arizonans who deserve to have a voice in Congress,” the congresswoman-elect said. “It is also robbing them of the essential constituent services they count on every day, especially during this Republican government shutdown.”
On Tuesday evening, Grijalva told reporters while heading into the House Democrats’ caucus meeting that she just received the keys to her Washington office, which used to be her father’s, but the phone lines and internet are not operational.
When asked if she thought “legal action” against Johnson meant a lawsuit, she said to check with Mayes but “my assumption is yes.”
Lauren Green contributed to this report.
