Adelita Grijalva sworn in as U.S. House's newest member, paving way for Epstein files vote

Democrat Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into Congress Wednesday, seven weeks after winning a special election in southern Arizona.

In a passionate speech from the House floor — her first remarks as the representative from Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — Grijalva called out the Speaker of the House, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson, for failing to swear her in sooner.

“This is an abuse of power,” Grijalva exclaimed. “One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons.”

Grijalva's swearing-in was delayed for a record breaking 50 days, the longest of any elected representative in the 21st century. Three weeks ago, Grijalva and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes even filed a lawsuit against Johnson over the stalling.

In her first floor speech, Grijalva also urged Republican Congressmen to serve as a check on the Trump administration and act as a coequal branch of government.

“What is most concerning is not what this administration has done but what the majority in this body has failed to do: hold Trump accountable as a coequal branch of government that we are,” she said.

Democrats in the chamber chanted “A-de-li-ta!” over and over again.

In her first act after she was sworn in, Grijalva became the decisive 218th member of Congress to sign a petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.

“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said. She acknowledged Liz Stein and Jess Michaels, two survivors of Jeffrey Epstein' s abuse who were present in the gallery.

Grijalva, along with many other Democrats, have repeatedly accused Johnson of refusing to swear her in to avoid the Epstein vote — an accusation Johnson has denied.

Fellow Democratic Congressman Greg Stanton welcomed Grijalva to the chamber with a brief speech and took his own swipes at the speaker for the long waiting period.

“The excuses for the delay have changed seemingly daily,” Stanton said, listing some of the reasons Johnson gave over the past few months as to why he wasn’t swearing Grijalva in.

“At one point the speaker went on television and said, ‘bless her heart. She is a representative-elect, she doesn’t know how it works around here.’ Bless his heart, because here’s how it should work, let’s call it the Adelita Grijalva precedent: when the American people vote, this chamber respects their will and seats them immediately,” Stanton said.

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A busy first day

Grijalva’s arrival kicks off a busy day on Capitol Hill as hundreds of House members return, their trips potentially complicated by travel delays caused by the shutdown.

Lawmakers who win special elections typically take the oath of office on days when legislative business is conducted. But with the House out of session since Sept. 19, Johnson had said he would swear her in when everyone returned. He did swear in two Republican members this year when the chamber was not in legislative session.

“I don’t think he’s thought of anything that he’s doing, in this case, as anything personal,” Grijalva told The Associated Press in an interview. “It feels personal because, literally, my name was attached. I also know that if I were a Republican, I would have been sworn in seven weeks ago.”

“We’ve been waiting for this so long that it’s still surreal,” she said.

She will start her House tenure by voting on the Senate-passed legislation to reopen the government. Grijalva and most Democrats are expected to oppose it because it does not extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Republicans can still pass the bill with their slim majority.

The 218th signature on an Epstein file discharge petition

Grijalva would be the final necessary signature on a discharge petition linked to legislation that would require the Justice Department to release all unclassified documents and communications related to Epstein and his sex trafficking operation.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is supported by all Democrats and three Republicans, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Grijalva can add her signature to the petition once she is sworn into office. But her move will not mean a vote right away, due to House rules.

Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said he expects voting on the Epstein bill to take place in early December.

Emails released Wednesday from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are likely to reignite interest in the issue. Epstein write in a 2011 email that Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a victim of sex trafficking and said in a separate message years later that Trump “knew about the girls."

“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Leavitt and Republicans on the committee said the person in question was Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with a number of his rich and powerful friends. Giuffre, before she died this year, had long insisted that Trump was not among the men who had victimized her.

Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Adelita’s father, died in March after more than two decades in the House, where he built a reputation as a staunch progressive.

Adelita Grijalva has long been active in local politics. She served on the Tucson Unified School District board before joining the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where she became only the second woman to lead the board.

She won the Sept. 23 special election with ease to complete the remainder of her father’s term, representing a mostly Hispanic district in which Democrats enjoy a nearly 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans. Grijalva said the win was emotional.

“I would rather have my dad than have an office,” she said.

She told the AP that environmental justice, tribal sovereignty and public education are among her priorities, echoing the work her father championed.

“I know that the bar is set very high, and the expectation is high of what we’re going to be able to do once sworn in,” she said.