Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes speaks at a news conference announcing that her office is taking action against vape stores in the Valley for selling tobacco products to underage consumers on July 8, 2025, in Phoenix.

WASHINGTON - Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes threatened House Speaker Mike Johnson with legal action if he didn’t formally swear in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won the special election to fill the congressional seat left vacant by her father last month.

In an Oct. 14 letter addressed to Johnson, Mayes demanded that Grijalva be sworn into office "without further delay," and that failing to seat her immediately or provide an explanation for when she will be seated "will prompt legal action."

Johnson said at an Oct. 14 press conference that he will swear Grijalva in after the federal government shutdown ends and the House is back in session.

"She deserves to have all the pomp and circumstances everybody else does. She deserves to have a full house of members.. That hasn't been scheduled because we haven't had that session yet," he said.

It's not clear when the shutdown will end, however, as negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over a funding deal remain at a standstill. The Senate has repeatedly voted on a bill that passed the House last month and would temporarily fund the government, but the bill has failed to advance in the upper chamber.

Mayes wrote in her letter that Grijalva's swearing in "must be immediate and prior to the date the House comes back into regular session," and that Johnson responds to her office within two days with "assurance of when and where that will take place."

"Should you fail to provide such assurance, we will be forced to seek judicial relief to protect Arizona and the residents of its Seventh Congressional District," Mayes wrote.

Grijalva won the special election to represent Arizona's seventh congressional district, which includes almost all of the state's border with Mexico, on Sept. 23. She is the deciding signature on a petition that would force a vote on a bill to release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Without her sworn in, the paperwork remains stalled.

Democrats have claimed Johnson is refusing to swear in Grijalva because of the Epstein files issue. Johnson has previously said the bill isn’t necessary after a committee released 33,295 pages of records Sept. 2.

Johnson told USA TODAY in a statement that, "As I have said repeatedly, the House will follow customary practice by swearing in Rep-elect Grijalva when the House is in legislative session.”

Grijalva told USA TODAY on Oct. 8 that one of the first reasons she heard that she could not be sworn in was that election officials hadn’t officially signed off on the result, an administrative task known as canvassing. The deadline to do so was Oct. 14, and Mayes posted the canvass online showing her win is certified.

"The previous three people who were in the same position" did not have to wait to have their votes certified prior to Johnson swearing them in, she said. The process can take weeks, depending on the state, and they were all sworn in the day after their elections.

"It’s frustrating more than anything because it’s sort of setting this idea that if the speaker doesn’t like your politics or doesn’t like what you might do, (they can) sort of drag their feet," Grijalva said.

This article has been updated to include new information.

Contributing: Erin Mansfield and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arizona AG threatens Mike Johnson with legal action for not swearing in Adelita Grijalva

Reporting by Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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