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WASHINGTON (AP) — 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-La., on Wednesday shortly before the House returned to session to vote on a deal to fund the federal government. After delivering a floor speech, Grijalva signed a discharge petition to eventually trigger a vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, giving it the needed 218 signatures.
Grijalva’s seating brings the partisan margin in the House to a narrow 220-214 Republican majority. She vowed to continue her father’s legacy of advocating for progressive policies on issues like environmentalism, labor rights and tribal sovereignty.
In a speech on the House floor after being sworn in, Grijalva said it was time for Congress “to restore a full and check and balance to this administration.”
“We can and must do better. What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority of this body has failed to do,” she said.
The seating of Grijalva brings an end to a weekslong delay that she and other Democrats said was intended to prevent her signature on the Epstein petition .
Johnson had refused to seat Grijalva while the chamber was out of session, a decision that prompted condemnation from Grijalva, a lawsuit from Arizona’s attorney general and speculation that Johnson was delaying her induction into the House to stall a vote on whether to require the Justice Department release documents related to the late convicted sex trafficker.
Grijalva had said she would join the petition from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., after taking office, giving it the 218 signatures needed. Three Republicans have signed onto Massie’s petition — Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
President Donald Trump has been reaching out about Epstein to two of them, according to a person familiar with the effort who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The president has phoned Mace, who has returned the calls, but the two have not yet spoken. Trump made a call to Boebert, which the person described as “unsuccessful.”
For now, anyone can remove his or her name from the petition. Once it reaches 218 signatures it will be too late.
A busy first day
Grijalva’s arrival kicks off a busy day on Capitol Hill as hundreds of House members return, their trips potentially complicated by travel delays caused by the shutdown.
Lawmakers who win special elections typically take the oath of office on days when legislative business is conducted. But with the House out of session since Sept. 19, Johnson had said he would swear her in when everyone returned. He did swear in two Republican members this year when the chamber was not in legislative session.
“I don’t think he’s thought of anything that he’s doing, in this case, as anything personal,” Grijalva told The Associated Press in an interview. “It feels personal because, literally, my name was attached. I also know that if I were a Republican, I would have been sworn in seven weeks ago.”
“We’ve been waiting for this so long that it’s still surreal,” she said.
She will start her House tenure by voting on the Senate-passed legislation to reopen the government. Grijalva and most Democrats are expected to oppose it because it does not extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Republicans can still pass the bill with their slim majority.
The 218th signature on an Epstein file discharge petition
Grijalva is the final necessary signature on a discharge petition linked 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 will not mean a vote right away, due to House rules.
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said he expects voting on the Epstein bill to take place in early December.
Emails released Wednesday from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are likely to reignite interest in the issue. Epstein write in a 2011 email that Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a victim of sex trafficking and said in a separate message years later that Trump “knew about the girls.”
“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Leavitt and Republicans on the committee said the person in question was Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with a number of his rich and powerful friends. Giuffre, before she died this year, had long insisted that Trump was not among the men who had victimized her.
Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman
Rep. Raúl 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 before joining the Pima County Board of Supervisors, where she became only the second woman to lead the board.
She won the Sept. 23 special election with ease to complete the remainder of her father’s term, representing a mostly Hispanic district in which Democrats enjoy a nearly 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans. Grijalva said the win was emotional.
“I would rather have my dad than have an office,” she said.
She told the AP that environmental justice, tribal sovereignty and public education are among her priorities, echoing the work her father championed.
“I know that the bar is set very high, and the expectation is high of what we’re going to be able to do once sworn in,” she said.
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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Adelita Grijalva was elected more than seven weeks ago, not nearly seven weeks ago.
Joey Cappelletti, Matt Brown And Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
