On September 23, Adelita Grijalva was elected to Arizona’s 7th Congressional District. But seven weeks later, she hasn’t been sworn in to her seat, leaving more than 800,000 constituents without representation in the House. 

October 29, 36 days after Grijalva’s election, marked the longest delay in 12 years between a House member winning a special election and being sworn in. 

As the government remains shut down and the U.S. House out of session, Grijalva and Democrats have cried foul, accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson of delaying swearing in Grijalva because she would be the final signature on a measure forcing a House vote to release files related to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.  

But as the U.S. Senate reached a deal to end the government shutdown, there are signs the stalemate over Grijalva is also coming to an end. Punchbowl News reported Monday morning that Johnson plans to swear Grijalva in before the House votes on funding the government. 

On the delay in being sworn in, Grijalva said, “There is no reason other than politics.” 

“The people of Southern Arizona have voted clearly, yet more than 812,000 people are still denied their voice in Congress,” she said. “This delay is not procedural. It’s intentional.”  

Here’s what to know: 

Why did Johnson not swear in Grijalva?

Johnson repeatedly said he would swear in Grijalva when Senate Democrats pass a stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution to end the shutdown and reopen the government. 

While the House has been on recess now for weeks, it has gaveled in for brief pro forma sessions where no legislative business is conducted. Grijalva has pointed out that two Florida Republicans, Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, were sworn into office in pro forma sessions after winning special elections to their seats in April. Rep. James Walkinshaw, a Virginia Democrat, was also sworn in a day after his special election win in September.

The speaker gave various explanations for why he hasn’t sworn in Grijalva in a pro forma session. Last month, Johnson engaged in a heated back-and-forth with Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona outside his office. He called Gallego’s claims “absurd,” saying that the timing of Grijalva’s swearing in “has nothing to do” with Epstein and that Democrats are “experts in red herrings.” 

Johnson has pointed out that GOP Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana was sworn in 25 days after her special election win in March 2021. He also said that Grijalva “deserves to have all the pomp and circumstance that everybody else does.”

“She deserves to have a full House of members and go down and do the speech and have her family and friends in the balcony. That hasn’t been scheduled because we haven’t had that session yet.”

On October 15, Grijalva said, “I don’t need bells and whistles. I don’t need pomp and circumstance. I just need to get to work for Southern Arizona.”

What did Democrats do? 

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against the House over Johnson not swearing Grijalva into office.

“This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House – who indisputably meets the constitutional qualifications of the office – may be denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of ‘regular session,’” Mayes wrote in the lawsuit.   

In the lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia, Mayes argues that “the Constitution does not specify who must administer the oath, only that Representatives must take it.”

Johnson, the lawsuit said, “may not use his statutory obligation to administer the oath … to arbitrarily delay seating a member when there is no dispute as to the election or qualifications and no practical reason why he is unable to administer the oath.”

Grijalva’s election win has been formally certified by election officials in Arizona.

In a previous letter to Johnson, Mayes said he  was acting “in violation of the Constitution” by not swearing in Grijalva and threatened “prompt legal action” if he does not swear her in immediately or “provide a reasonable explanation as to when she will be seated.” It’s unclear what such a challenge would look like — while there have been past disputes in Congress over seating members who ran in close or contested elections in the past, Grijalva decisively won her race with over 70 percent of the vote. 

“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,” Mayes wrote. 

On October 14, members of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus held a protest, marching to Johnson’s office to demand he swear in Grijalva. At the time, Johnson was at the White House for a ceremony posthumously awarding Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

“Last night, they played some games, they stormed my office,” Johnson said at an October 15 news conference. “They engaged in all sorts of political stunts and antics.” 

What does this have to do with Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein survivors, members of both parties in Congress and many in President Donald Trump’s base have called for more transparency surrounding Epstein, who in 2019 died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Trump, who was friendly with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s but said the two had a falling out before Epstein became a convicted sex offender, has dismissed the Epstein matter as “a Democrat hoax.”

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California are leading a bipartisan effort to direct the Department of Justice to release the full tranche of files, estimated at 100,000 pages, it has connected to Epstein. The House Oversight Committee is also conducting an investigation into the Epstein case and has subpoenaed files from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate. 

Lawmakers from both parties have called for the government to release more information about Epstein, and some top officials in Trump’s Justice Department had promised they would release the so-called Epstein files before they took office. They later concluded that they could not release all the information, saying it was out of concern for survivors’ personal information. Many have questioned whether the Justice Department could share more documents. 

“There is zero question in my mind that a huge, huge part of this is around buying time around the Epstein issue. They are scrambling. They don’t know what to do,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a first-term Arizona Democrat and member of the House Oversight Committee, said at the October 15 news conference. 

Johnson sent lawmakers home for a five-week recess early in July after the discord over the Epstein files effectively ground House business to a halt. 

“And it wasn’t until there was so much pressure on Republicans in Congress that in one subcommittee of the Oversight Committee, we were able to get several Republicans to join us, and that’s how the subpoena even came to light,” Ansari said. “If it were up to Mike Johnson, there would never have been an Oversight investigation.”

Johnson has said he supports releasing more of the files but opposes Khanna and Massie’s measure, citing the need to protect survivors’ personal information and the House Oversight Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Epstein matter. Khanna and Massie are aiming to circumvent leadership’s opposition with a procedural tool called a discharge petition, which requires 218 signatures to force a vote on the House floor. 

All sitting House Democrats and three Republican women — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace — have signed onto the measure. Grijalva would be the 218th signature. 

Ansari said the White House is mounting a “pressure campaign” on the Republican women who have signed the discharge petition, which White House officials have deemed “a hostile act.” 

“They are using this time that they are not swearing in Congresswoman-elect Grijalva to try to put as much pressure as possible on, what I have heard, Lauren Boebert, especially, to get her to come off of that petition so that Adelita would not be the 218th signature,” Ansari said.