Overview
- Grijalva won a Sept. 23 special election yet remains unsworn more than a month later, leaving Arizona’s 7th District without a seated representative.
- Speaker Mike Johnson’s office says she will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session and points to prior waiting periods as precedent.
- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed a federal lawsuit seeking immediate relief to compel or permit the swearing-in after the state certified the results.
- Grijalva says the delay prevents her from accessing a budget, leasing district offices, and fully staffing, curbing services for roughly 800,000 constituents during the shutdown.
- Critics contend the holdup is political, citing her potential to provide a pivotal 218th signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on DOJ Epstein records; Johnson disputes that, and some Republicans, including Mo Brooks, are urging a prompt oath.