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By Grace Berry and Nick Karmia, Cronkite News
Photo: Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Tucson, delivers her first floor speech moments after Speaker Mike Johnson swore her in on Nov. 12, 2025 -- 50 days after her landslide win in a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of her father, Raúl Grijalva. (from U.S. House of Representatives video)
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November 12, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) - Fifty days after winning her late father’s seat in Congress, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn in Wednesday. She immediately attacked Speaker Mike Johnson for the unprecedented delay.
“This is an abuse of power,” Grijalva, D-Tucson, said moments after Johnson welcomed her to the House. “One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing-in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons.”
She then signed a petition to force a House vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, the last name needed to overcome Johnson’s resistance.
Hours earlier, the House oversight committee released emails linking President Donald Trump more closely than previously known to Epstein’s sex trafficking. Democrats brought two of the late financier’s accusers to the House, Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, to witness Grijalva’s swearing-in.
“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said.
House Democrats packed their side of the chamber and shared hugs with their new colleague, whose blistering floor speech was highly unusual for someone in office for only a few minutes.
Grijalva also used the spotlight to blast Trump and to accuse congressional Republicans of enabling him.
“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 co-equal branch of government that we are,” Grijalva said. “It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we the American people.”
Grijalva also vowed to advocate for public schools, tribal sovereignty, the environment and LGBTQ+ rights.
Two hours later she cast her first House votes, on the losing side as the House sent a bill ending the shutdown to the president.
Johnson remained at the rostrum for Grijalva’s speech.
If he took offense, he didn’t show it when they stood together minutes later for the traditional reenactment ceremony. She placed one hand on a Bible he held and raised the other as cameras clicked.
The speaker joked that there had been “some intense fellowship” between Democrats and himself about the long delay.
Photo, right: House Speaker Mike Johnson swears in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Tucson, on Nov. 12, 2025 — 50 days after her landslide win in a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of her father, Raúl Grijalva. (from U.S. House of Representatives video)“But she’s here now, and I promised that we would have the oath administered before we began legislative business,” he said. “She hasn’t missed a vote.”
Calling her father “tenacious,” the speaker recalled his own time on the Natural Resources Committee when Raúl Grijalva chaired it.
“He was a giant around here. Served a long time. Served his state very well,” he said, adding, “She has a proud family legacy and we’re delighted to have her here. … I really like this lady. She’s going to be an excellent member of Congress. She’s a great person.”
Raúl Grijalva won the seat in 2002. His daughter’s Sept. 23 landslide in a special election to fill the vacancy came four days after Johnson had dismissed the House ahead of the Sept. 30 budget deadline.
The shutdown began Oct. 1. In the weeks that followed, Johnson refused to swear her in during brief pro forma sessions, saying he would wait until the chamber returned for a regular session.
That finally happened Wednesday, two days after a Democratic blockade crumbled in the Senate on a plan to reopen the government.
Democrats argued the delay in swearing in Grijalva was indefensible, pointing out that Johnson himself had sworn in two Republicans during pro forma sessions.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 21 hoping to force Johnson to swear her in.
After Grijalva took the oath – and before her floor speech – Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City, congratulated his new colleague on behalf of the Arizona delegation. He became the delegation’s longest-serving member when her father died.
“I have no doubt she will bring to the halls of Congress the same energy that has defined her years of public service,” Gosar said.
Rep. Greg Stanton, a Phoenix Democrat, added his welcome with a scathing attack on the speaker.
“Since Sept. 23, the people of Arizona have been waiting for this day, and the excuses for the delay have changed seemingly daily,” he said, as Democrats in the chamber booed.
At one point, Johnson insisted on seeing a formal election certificate, which is typically needed only in cases of a very close contest. Early in the delay, the speaker pointed to a 25-day span before Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi swore in Rep. Julia Letlow, a Louisiana Republican, during the pandemic in 2021.
The real reason, Stanton said, was that “she will be the 218th and final signature on the discharge petition” to force release of the Epstein files, “delivering long overdue justice and accountability for hundreds of victims abused by rich and powerful men.”
House Democrats erupted in cheers before he finished the sentence.
Democrats chanted “A-de-li-ta, A-de-li-ta,” as she made her way to the lectern.
Switching between English and Spanish, Grijalva paid tribute to her roots, describing herself as the granddaughter of “a hardworking Mexican immigrant who came to this country for a better life.”
She noted that she is the first Latina sent to Congress by Arizona voters and gave shoutouts to her children, on hand to witness the moment: Adelina, Raúl and Joaquín.
Although she acknowledged her swearing-in as something to be celebrated, she called attention to attacks against the country’s democracy.
“While we celebrate this moment today, our American promise is under serious threat. Basic freedoms are under attack,” Grijalva said. “Health care premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents.”
Reiterating the complaint that Johnson deprived Arizona’s 7th Congressional District of representation for more than seven weeks, she said, “Our democracy only works well when everyone has a voice.”
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