Rep. Adelita Grijalva is finally sworn in as the House’s newest Democrat, paving way for Epstein files vote

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — After 50 days of waiting, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into Congress Wednesday, bringing an end to a contentious chapter in the US House of Representatives that included a lawsuit and rising tensions inside the Capitol over her seating.

Speaker Mike Johnson had said he would not swear in the Arizona Democrat amid the government shutdown until the House returned to legislative session, a delay that prompted outrage from Democrats. The swearing in took place after the chamber reconvened to vote on a Senate-passed bill to reopen the government.

While she waited to be sworn in, Grijalva had been unable to perform basic constituent services or even open an office in her southern Arizona district. She hasn’t had a working office phone, an office budget or the ability to use government systems. Residents of the sprawling district had been without a vote in Congress.

“I’m basically a tourist with an office,” Grijalva told CNN last month, standing in her empty office at the Capitol.

Now Grijalva will finally be able to walk onto the House floor without being escorted and join her colleagues as a member of Congress.

The timing of her swearing in has also been closely watched because she is poised to become the decisive 218th member in of support an effort to force the House to vote on the release of all of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, an issue that has roiled the House and sparked division among Republicans.

Democrats have argued that Johnson delayed swearing Grijalva in because she would be the deciding signature that would trigger the floor vote and pointed to other instances where Johnson moved quickly to swear in Republicans who won their special elections.

“The only thing that’s different about me and the three other people that this speaker swore in in under 24 hours from the date of their elections is I’m the 218th signer,” Grijalva told CNN last month.

Johnson has defended his decision to delay Grijalva’s swearing by arguing that she won her race on September 23 when the House was already out of session and had vowed to swear her in as soon as the House returned.

“Just as I promised, as soon as we get back to legislative session, so before we have this vote that we are talking about, she will be administered the oath,” Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday.

The House has been out of session since September 19, as Johnson put pressure on Senate Democrats to compromise with Republicans and vote to end the government shutdown.

As the shutdown dragged on, the pressure on Johnson to swear in Grijalva mounted. Arizona’s Democratic senators got into a hallway confrontation with Johnson over the issue and other Democrats staged protests outside of the speaker’s office. Arizona’s attorney general even sued the House of Representatives over the delay, a move that Johnson dismissed as “patently absurd” and a bid for publicity.

Grijalva filled the seat vacated by her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district in Congress for more than two decades before he died after a battle with cancer in March. Running on the strength of her family name, she sailed to victory in the Democratic primary this summer and then defeated Republican Daniel Butierez in the special election, capturing roughly 70% of the vote.

“It’s been a really long wait. Incredibly frustrating,” Grijalva said on CNN on Monday.

Grijalva said the hardest part about delaying her swearing in was being unable to help her constituents during the longest government shutdown in history.

“I’ve really missed the opportunity to be able to help constituents that are here that need services. So it’s been very difficult to sit it out while people come up to me and ask me for help,” she said.

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