Rep.-elect Grijalva says she plans to confront Johnson at long-delayed swearing-in ceremony

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Nov 11, 2025, 11:32 PM ET


Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who is set to be sworn in on Wednesday, said she will confront House Speaker Mike Johnson after waiting nearly 50 days to be seated as a member of Congress.

“I won’t be able to like sort of move on if I don’t address it personally and we’ll see what kind of reaction he has,” Grijalva, a Democrat, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” Tuesday. “I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to say,” Grijalva added but said she will stress that Johnson refusing to swear her in for over a month is “undemocratic.”

“It’s unconstitutional. It’s illegal. Should never happen — this kind of obstruction cannot happen again,” Grijalva said. Grijalva won a special election on September 23 to replace her father, longtime Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.

The House has been out of session since September 19 and Johnson refused to swear in Grijalva in the chamber’s absence amid the government shutdown.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/politics/adelita-grijalva-arizona-mike-johnson-swearing-in