Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva reflects on history-making appointment

Two months after winning a special election to take over the Congressional seat of her late father, Raul Grijalva, Representative Adelita Grijalva (D) was finally sworn in to the Arizona House of Representatives by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R) on November 12, 2025.

Grijalva had to wait 50 days beating out the previous record of 35 days. That record was set by Jimmy Gomez (D) from California who requested the delay because of what he and his allies described as a “family conflict.” That came following his June 2017 victory in a special election.

Representative Grijalva recently joined “Horizonte,” before being sworn in, to reflect on her history-making appointment as the first Arizona Latina woman in Congress. She also spoke about her late father’s legacy.

Grijalva, alongside Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) filed a lawsuit in October asking a federal court to either compel Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R) to swear her in, or allow someone else to swear her in. “None of us want to be in this position,” Grijalva said.

Congresswoman Grijalva said she believes part of her delay was attributed to the fact that she was the final vote needed on a petition to force a vote on H.R.4405 – Epstein Files Transparency Act which would force the government to release all files relating to the investigation into the disgraced former financier and serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I remember on election night someone said ‘he’s not going to swear you in because of those files’ and I thought that sounded like a conspiracy theory but here we are,” Grijalva said.

Grijalva was elected to represent a large portion of southern Arizona which is home to over 800,000 people. “They’re very angry which I appreciate… I never thought we would be here, I was in D.C. on September 30th at a pro forma session thinking I was going to get sworn in,” Grijalva said.

Grijalva was officially sworn in on November 12, 2025.