Arizona AG Sues Speaker Mike Johnson to Force Adelita Grijalva’s Swearing-In

(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson of “a brazen act of voter disenfranchisement” for refusing to seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Democrat who won last month’s special election to fill her late father’s seat.

“For weeks, the speaker has stonewalled, delayed and twisted himself into knots trying to justify what is, at its core, a brazen act of voter disenfranchisement,” Mayes wrote in an MSNBC op-ed on Tuesday, arguing that “Arizona will not beg for its full representation in Congress.”

Johnson has said he’ll swear in Grijalva once the government reopens after its nearly month-long shutdown, though he has the power to reconvene the House at any time.

Grijalva, who joined the lawsuit, thanked Mayes “for her support in fighting for the voices of more than 800,000 Arizonans who are currently being silenced.”

Grijalva was elected in a special election back in September to take over the Congressional seat vacated by her father, Raul Grijalva, after his death in March.

Democrats say Johnson’s refusal is politically motivated, noting that Grijalva’s vote could force a long-stalled petition to release Jeffrey Epstein case files.

Johnson previously dismissed threats of a lawsuit as “a publicity stunt by a Democrat attorney general in Arizona who sees a national moment and wants to call me out.”