Arizona’s newest congresswoman has been waiting nearly two months to take the oath of office — and waiting, it seems, on House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Tucson, has been in what she calls “limbo” since winning a special election to fill the seat of her late father, longtime Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in late September. More than 40 days into a government shutdown, Johnson has yet to schedule her swearing-in ceremony — a procedural step that would officially allow her to represent the roughly 800,000 people in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
Speaking to NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports, Grijalva said she’s growing increasingly frustrated. “I’ve been ready to serve,” she said. “But I can’t do my job until I’m sworn in.”
House Speaker Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, isn’t legally barred from delaying her swearing-in because of the shutdown. Still, Democrats accuse him of playing politics. Some believe he’s intentionally stalling because Grijalva’s vote could tip the balance on a resolution demanding the release of additional files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson has dismissed that claim, calling the vote “irrelevant” since the House Oversight Committee is already working on reviewing the materials. But the optics are hard to ignore: Grijalva, a newly elected woman of color from a border state, has been sidelined for weeks while partisan gridlock deepens in Washington.
The delay leaves her district — which covers much of southern Arizona, including parts of Tucson and Nogales — without a voice in Congress at a time when the shutdown is hurting workers and federal programs across the region. Constituents who rely on Social Security, food assistance, or immigration services have been left in the dark, unable to turn to their representative for help.
Grijalva has said she doesn’t plan to take legal action to force the issue, even after Arizona’s attorney general sent a letter to Johnson demanding a response that never came. “I still believe this process should work the way it’s supposed to,” she said. “But right now, it’s not working for the people I was elected to serve.”
The situation underscores the dysfunction gripping the House since the shutdown began. With funding negotiations stalled, Johnson and his Republican majority have spent weeks trading blame with Senate Democrats and the White House. Rare weekend sessions in the Senate have yet to produce a breakthrough, and the standoff has already surpassed 40 days — one of the longest government shutdowns in U.S. history.
For Grijalva, the irony isn’t lost. Her first experience as a member of Congress has been defined by her inability to actually join it. She’s been forced to watch from the sidelines as debates over spending, immigration, and transparency unfold — issues central to her father’s long career and to her own political identity as a progressive educator and community advocate.
When she finally does take the oath, Grijalva will enter a chamber that’s changed dramatically since her father’s first term — more polarized, more performative, and more paralyzed. But she says she’s still ready. “I didn’t run to sit and wait,” she told reporters. “I ran to work.”
