Washington– Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of Congress on Wednesday, more than seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona to fill the House seat last held by her late father.
Grijalva was sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, on Wednesday shortly before the House returned to session to vote on a deal to fund the federal government. After giving a speech, Grijalva signed a discharge petition to trigger a vote to finally release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, granting her the required 218 signatures.
Grijalva’s seating brings the House’s partisan margin to a narrow Republican majority of 220-214. She pledged to continue her father’s legacy of advocating for progressive policies on issues such as environmental protection, labor rights and tribal sovereignty.
In a speech on the House floor after he was sworn in, Grijalva said it was time for Congress to “restore full control and balance to this administration.”
“We can and must do better,” she said. “What is concerning is not what this administration has done, but rather what the majority of this body has failed to do.”
Grijalva’s seating brings an end to a weeks-long delay, which she and other Democrats said was intended to prevent her from signing Epstein’s petition.
Johnson declined to seat Grijalva while the chamber was out of session, a decision that sparked Grijalva’s conviction, a lawsuit from Arizona’s attorney general and speculation that Johnson was delaying her entry into the House to obstruct a vote on whether to ask the Justice Department to release documents related to the late convicted sex trafficker.
Grijalva said she would join the petition filed by Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, after he took office, granting it the necessary 218 signatures. Three Republicans signed Massie’s petition: Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
President Donald Trump has reached out to two of them about Epstein, according to a person familiar with the efforts who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. The president phoned Mace, who returned the calls, but the two have not yet spoken. Trump made a phone call with Boebert, and that person described it as “unsuccessful.”
Currently, anyone can remove their name from the petition. Once it reaches 218 signatures, it will be too late.
Busy first day
Grijalva’s arrival kicks off a busy day on Capitol Hill with hundreds of House members returning, their trips likely complicated by travel delays caused by the shutdown.
Lawmakers who win special elections are typically sworn in on days when legislative business is conducted. But with the House of Representatives out of session since September 19, Johnson said he would be sworn in when everyone returned. He swore in two Republican members this year when the chamber was not in legislative session.
“I don’t think he considers anything he does, in this case, to be anything personal,” Grijalva told The Associated Press in an interview. “It feels personal, because my name is literally attached. And I also know that if I had been a Republican, I would have been sworn in seven weeks ago.”
“We’ve been waiting for this for so long that it’s still surreal,” she said.
She will begin her term in the House of Representatives by voting on legislation passed by the Senate to reopen the government. Grijalva and most Democrats are expected to oppose it because it does not extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Republicans could still pass the bill with their narrow majority.
Signature No. 218 on the discharge petition for the Epstein case
Grijalva is the necessary final signature on a release petition tied to legislation that would require the Justice Department to release all unclassified documents and communications related to Epstein and his sex trafficking operation. But her move won’t mean a vote right away, because of House rules.
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said he expected a vote on Epstein’s bill in early December.
Emails released Wednesday from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are likely to spark interest in the issue. Epstein wrote in a 2011 email that Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with a sex trafficking victim, and said in a separate letter years later that Trump “was aware of both girls.”
“Democrats selectively leaked emails to liberal media outlets to create a false narrative to discredit President Trump,” White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement.
Levitt and Republicans on the committee said the person in question was Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters for her with a number of his wealthy and powerful friends. Giuffre, before her death this year, had long insisted that Trump was not among the men who sacrificed her.
Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman
Rep. Raul 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 of Directors before joining the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where she became the second woman to lead the board.
She easily won the September 23 special election to serve out the remainder of her father’s term, representing a majority-Hispanic district in which Democrats hold a voter registration advantage over Republicans by about 2-to-1. Grijalva said the win was emotional.
“I would rather have my parents than have an office,” she said.
She told the AP that environmental justice, tribal sovereignty and public education are among her priorities, reflecting the work her father championed.
“I know the bar is very high, the expectations are high about what we will be able to do once we are sworn in,” she said.
Kennard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
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