The biggest name in the House right now hasn't been sworn in yet

WASHINGTON — Adelita Grijalva was out to eat at her favorite sushi spot in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, on Wednesday when an image of Speaker Mike Johnson came on a screen in the restaurant.

The CNN chyron referenced rising tensions on the Hill amid the partial government shutdown, and she watched as the footage rolled: Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly were confronting the speaker, taking him to task for refusing to swear her in.

“I’m like, look, there I am!” Grijalva said via video call shortly after lunch. She was back at her campaign headquarters, where she’s spent much of her time working since winning a Sept. 23 special election in Arizona’s 7th District.

Johnson has maintained that Grijalva should not be sworn in during the brief House meetings known as pro forma sessions, despite having done so for two Republicans — Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis, both of Florida — earlier this Congress. Grijalva will be sworn in only when the current funding lapse is over and the government reopens, Johnson has suggested.

“We have a long tradition here and a process of how we administer the oath to a member. … We’re going to do that as soon as we get back to work,” Johnson told Gallego and Kelly during their confrontation.

Democrats point to a different reason: Delaying her swearing-in also means slowing down a growing movement in the House aimed at forcing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The result of this stalemate is that, even 2,000 miles away from the nation’s capital, Grijalva has become the most popular Democrat in town in recent weeks. Rather than legislating, she’s spending much of her time in this state speaking to the media about the odd predicament in which she finds herself.

She feels she has Johnson to thank for the sudden step into the spotlight.

“He’s giving me all this attention because he’s dragging his feet about swearing me in,” Grijalva said. “How broken is this system? Your job as speaker is to swear people in, regardless of party.”

Grijalva is the former chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the daughter of Raúl M. Grijalva, the longtime Arizona lawmaker who died in March.

Her name is now on a plaque beside the door of her father’s former office, but she doesn’t have the keys to get in. In her capacity as a representative-elect, she hasn’t been able to staff up on the Hill or set up a district office. Whatever work she is able to do from the Capitol is carried out in conference rooms.

When she came to the Hill last week — at the invitation of her soon-to-be Democratic colleagues — to participate in caucus meetings and attend other events, she had to be led around campus.

“I get stopped at security,” Grijalva said. “I don’t have a role there.”

After sailing to victory in the special election to replace her father with nearly 70% of the vote, Grijalva expected to be sworn in quickly, just as James R. Walkinshaw, the Virginia Democrat replacing the late Gerry Connolly, had been weeks earlier.

Her husband, a librarian at a local community college, her three children and her mother had their flights booked and were ready to travel to D.C. before she learned that it wouldn’t be happening.

Partly out of financial restraint, and partly because of the frustration of navigating the Capitol as a non-member, Grijalva has opted to spend her time this week in her district, rather than traveling back and forth.

“I can’t just come up with $1,000 every time there’s going to be a press conference or something,” she said.

Although Grijalva’s time on the Hill, and her ability to do any real work on behalf of her constituents, has been limited thanks to the delay, her Democratic colleagues have taken up her cause, hammering House GOP leaders for their reluctance and repeatedly attempting to seek recognition from the floor to prompt her swearing in.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., made the attempt on Wednesday, only to be ignored by the Republican presiding at the time, Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho.

“He saw me. He didn’t officially recognize me. He recognizes me. I’m the dean of the Arizona delegation trying to fight for my new member who just got elected two weeks ago. So he recognized me, but he didn’t officially recognize me,” Stanton said, coming off the floor fuming.

Grijalva and her colleagues have alleged the holdup is a thinly veiled attempt to derail the effort to force the release of documents related to Epstein, something President Donald Trump and the White House have fought against. While some documents are already public and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is sharing more as part of its own investigation, others want a fuller look.

Rep. Thomas Massie, the libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky with an independent streak, circulated a discharge petition this summer that could compel a vote on the issue over the protests of Republican leadership. Grijalva has vowed to provide the decisive 218th signature once she officially becomes a member of the House.

Johnson reiterated Thursday morning that he planned to arrange the swearing-in “as soon as we get back to regular session,” calling her election to her late father’s seat “a great achievement” during an appearance on C-SPAN and blaming Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer for rejecting a GOP stopgap proposal to fund the government. But some Democrats say they aren’t buying it.

“(Johnson) is now fully complicit in the cover-up of the Epstein files by doing this. It’s also extremely anti-democratic,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat who represents a neighboring district. Johnson has denied the claim, citing the House investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, Grijalva has picked up at least one unlikely ally. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of three other Republicans to join Massie on the Epstein discharge petition, was asked about the delay during a CNN appearance Thursday and whether she thought it was related to the Epstein files.

“I can’t conclusively say if that’s why the House is not in session, but the House should be in session. And the House should be in session for many reasons. We have appropriation bills that need to get passed. There is a new Democrat that’s been elected that does deserve to be sworn in,” Greene said.

In the meantime, Grijalva is attending events and news conferences locally when she can. And she estimated she’s doing more than a dozen media hits a day. She said she won’t miss the attention once she’s sworn in — she’d much rather get to work. As soon as Johnson gives the word, she’ll get on a plane, provided the shutdown doesn’t interfere.

“As long as I can get there,” she said. “You know, flights are getting canceled.”