Adelita Grijalva: AZ AG Kris Mayes threatens lawsuit over delayed swearing-in

PHOENIX - Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is giving U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson a deadline to swear in Adelite Grijalva, who won a special election that was held for her late father's seat in the House of Representatives.

The backstory:

The special election for Arizona's 7th Congressional District was held on Sept. 23, months after Raul Grijalva died due to complications from cancer treatments. The Democratic lawmaker was of 77.

At the time of his death, Raul represented Arizona in Congress for decades, having won his first congressional election in 2002.

Adelita Grijalva (Courtesy: Adelita Grijalva for Congress)

Adelita has been waiting three weeks to be sworn in as Arizona's newest representative in the U.S. House. Speaker Johnson’s reasons for waiting to swear her in, meanwhile, has kept shifting.

Initially, Speaker Johnson said he was waiting for official results to come in. Then, he said he’d swear Adelita in when Congress was back in session. Now, he’s saying he’ll do it when the government reopens.

"She won her election after the House was out of session, so we've not had a full session," said U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. "As soon as Chuck Schumer opens the government, as soon as Mark Kelly and Senator Gallego, the two senators from Arizona, Ms. Grijalva's state, will go and join with three others and open the government, we're happy. We'll have that as soon as we get back to business."

Adelita has alleged political reasons behind her delayed swearing-in.

"Seven hundred thousand people deserve to have their voice heard," she said. "Let’s just be really clear, if I were a Republican, I would have already been sworn in."

What we know:

Attorney General Mayes is giving Speaker Johnson until Thursday, Oct. 16 to confirm when and where the swearing-in will be taking place, and it has to be immediate, before Congress is back in session. If he doesn’t, Mayes says she will be forced to seek judicial relief.

"Despite the fact that the voters have made their voices clear, Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed and stonewalled Rep. Grijalva’s swearing in," said AG Mayes.

"It is unprecedented for a member of Congress to not be sworn in three weeks after they were elected," said Andres Cano, who is on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. "If this were a Republican district it would have happened within 24 hours, as it has happened in the last several weeks for similar special elections. Speaker Johnson needs to stop playing political games. This is impacting 800,000 Arizonans who don’t have access to constituent support from Congresswoman Grijalva. And so we got to keep putting the pressure on."

Local perspective:

Some residents in Tucson trust Speaker Johnson, even as Adelita has said the delay may be due to her being the 218th vote needed on a petition to release the Epstein files.

"I do. I mean, is it politics? Yes. But I don’t think it’s the vote, the Epstein vote," one resident said.

"Probably he should. I wish she wasn’t the one he was swearing in, but that’s OK," said another.