Attorney General Kris Mayes says she will sue House Speaker Mike Johnson if he doesn’t swear in congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva immediately.
Mayes sent the legal threat on Tuesday, the day when statewide certification took place and made Grijalva eligible for swearing in. Grijalva was elected last month to fill the seventh congressional district seat emptied by her late father, Raul Grijalva.
In response, Johnson said, “It is no surprise that yet another Democrat politician from Arizona is trying a publicity stunt. I’ve explained this a thousand times, we’re going to swear in Grijalva as soon as we get back to legislative session.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson responds to AG Mayes: “It is no surprise that yet another Democrat politician from Arizona is trying a publicity stunt. I’ve explained this a thousand times, we’re going to swear in Grijalva as soon as we get back to legislative session.” https://t.co/P5jZxaXFxn pic.twitter.com/xebXm0n5R8
— Veronica Stracqualursi (@VeronicaStrac) October 14, 2025
For weeks now the congresswoman-elect Grijalva has advocated for her swearing in, long before she was eligible under Arizona law dictating certification.
Mayes accused Johnson of “frustrating the will of the voters.” The attorney general included an abridged quote from James Madison’s Federalist 52 to argue the House should have “intimate sympathy” for Grijalva’s soon-to-be constituents by swearing her in.
However, the full quote from Madison and its context challenges Mayes’s argument. This passage within Federalist 52 stressed the importance of frequent elections and the government sharing a common interest with its constituents. The unfiltered passage has more bearing on the late Grijalva’s fitness to serve since he was essentially absent from Congress for two years — a matter on which his daughter was silent.
“As it is essential to liberty that the government in general should have a common interest with the people, so it is particularly essential that the branch of it under consideration should have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people,” said Madison. “Frequent elections are unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and sympathy can be effectually secured.”
Mayes did not speak out against the late Grijalva for not providing representation for two years.
“You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in,” said Mayes.
Grijalva’s plight is not unique. Other elected officials, even another congresswoman from Arizona, had to wait to be sworn in.
Former congresswoman Debbie Lesko — now Maricopa County supervisor — wasn’t sworn in until the House resumed session in May 2018.
“[What happened to me is] what’s happening with Grijalva,” posted Lesko on X . “The Democrats and media are making a big deal over nothing.”
I didn't get sworn into Congress after my 2018 special election until the U.S. House was in session…. that's what's happening with Grijalva. The Democrats and Media are making a big deal over nothing.
— Debbie Lesko (@DebbieLesko) October 10, 2025
Johnson says he won’t swear in Grijalva until the House resumes its session. In other words: until Democrats agree to a continuing resolution that would lift the government shutdown.
Mayes says this is unacceptable.
“In a particularly worrisome comment, an aide connected the swearing-in and admission to the ongoing budget fight, suggesting that the House is trying to use Arizona’s constitutional right to representation in the House as a bargaining chip,” said Mayes in her letter. “Arizona’s right to a full delegation, and the right of the residents of CD 7 to representation from the person they recently voted for, are not up for debate and may not be delayed or used as leverage in negotiations about unrelated legislation.”
The shutdown has lasted for two weeks now. The longest shutdown on record lasted 35 days, from December 2018 to January 2019.
F U and the horse you rode in on Adelita! Just be patient as you’ll have plenty of opportunity to f___ things up once you get into the position. I just hope and pray it’s only for 14 or so months!!