Arizona Rep.-Elect Grijalva Finally Gets Keys to Office — But ‘No Internet, No Computers…Phone Lines Aren’t Working’

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images

Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) has been waiting weeks to be sworn in and finally got the keys to her congressional office Tuesday, only to find “just a space” — no internet, no phone lines, no computers.

Grijalva won a special election on Sept. 23, easily trouncing her Republican opponent in her deep-blue district 69% to 29%. She will succeed her father, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who died on March 13, in representing Arizona’s 7th district —if she is ever sworn in.

House Republicans are dragging their feet on letting Grijalva officially join their ranks and have been using the government shutdown as an excuse.

However, it’s widely speculated that a major reason for the delay in swearing her in is the vote to release the Epstein files, as Grijalva would be the 218th vote to pass the bill in the House; she’s publicly made this accusation many times herself.

There has been a lot of demand — including from President Donald Trump’s MAGA base — to release the files related to deceased convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and documents obtained by media outlets have only heightened the interest in bringing transparency to the matter.

Late last month, Grijalva expressed frustration because she couldn’t hire staff, use the congressional bypass for the security line, and had not yet been given access to an office. That latter issue was addressed Tuesday, only to lead to more frustration once she realized she had been given the keys to “basically an empty room,” as Politico’s Nicholas Wu reported.

“I just got keys, but there the phone lines aren’t working,” Grijalva told Wu. “There is no internet, no computers. It’s just a space.”

Shortly thereafter, Grijalva and a group of House Democrats marched to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office chanting “swear her in” and carrying posters. Johnson was not there at the time, according to two sources who spoke to Politico, and the group left.

Grijalva posted a short video showing her and the other Democrats marching to Johnson’s office, and then another clip in which she addressed the speaker directly.

“Speaker Johnson,” she wrote, “You ready to swear me in?”

In the video clip, Grijalva said that the state government authorities in Arizona had certified her win in the special election, “and now they’re asking Speaker Johnson — demanding — that he swear me in.”

“So that’s why I’m here,” she said, adding that she planned to be there for two days and asking Johnson again to swear her in.