Grijalva was elected to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District on Sept. 23, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused to swear her in, saying he’d wait until the House was back in session during the longest government shutdown in history.
Johnson previously swore in two Republican House members when the lower chamber was out of session.
During remarks after being sworn in, Grijalva called her delayed swearing-in “an abuse of power.”
“It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District elected me to represent them,” Grijalva said. “Fifty days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly-elected member of Congress for political reasons.”
A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed...
