Grijalva said Johnson wanted “more time” to persuade Republicans “to take their name off of the discharge petition to release the Epstein files.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered the oath of office to U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva on Nov. 12, winding down a nearly seven-week-long standoff that became a flashpoint for Democratic complaints and teeing up a politically sensitive vote on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Fifty days after winning her late father’s seat in Congress, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn in. The Tucson Democrat immediately attacked Speaker Mike Johnson, calling the unprecedented delay an "abuse of power.

The representative-elect and the state of Arizona sued Johnson in October 2025 over his refusal to swear her in.

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,

Adelita Grijalva says Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to delay her swearing-in has completely backfired. In her view, it’s given her more attention and a bigger platform than she could have built on her own.