She Won Her Election. Mike Johnson Won't Swear Her In.

"Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva knows a lot about elections. She herself was just elected to Congress in Arizona's 7 th District. Before that, her father-who died in the spring-held the seat for more than two decades. Grijalva won her election. By a landslide. But for the past six weeks? Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has refused to seat her. She's been to Washington. But she can't do much there. She's started putting out videos counting up all the things she can't do. Democrats have tried to confront Johnson about all this but have had little luck. One reason he's blocking her? She'd be the crucial 218 th vote that could get the Epstein documents out."

"On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke one-on-one with the congresswoman who is not quite a congresswoman. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity. Mary Harris: You won the election on Sept. 23, about a week before the government shut down. Did you think you were always going to run for your father's seat? Were you always interested in politics? Adelita Grijalva: No, I was not going to run for Congress. What changed your mind? When he passed away, I was getting a lot of pressure from everybody. I looked around and saw who else was running. I was concerned that if we didn't have a progressive run that we were going to get somebody that was not going to do the job my dad did."

Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva won Arizona's 7th District by a landslide after her father, who held the seat for more than two decades, died in the spring. Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to seat her for six weeks, preventing her from performing House duties despite her presence in Washington. Democrats have confronted the speaker without success. One reported motive for the block is that Grijalva would be the decisive 218th vote potentially affecting release of Epstein-related documents. Grijalva had not planned to run but entered the race amid local pressure and concern over progressive representation.

Read at Slate Magazine