After seven weeks, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into the House and says vote for the release of Epstein’s files.

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Seven weeks after winning a special election, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into Congress on Wednesday, ending a controversial chapter in the U.S. House of Representatives that included a lawsuit and increased tensions within Capitol Hill over its seats. Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not be sworn in by the Arizona Democrat amid the government shutdown until the House returned to legislative session, a 50-day delay that sparked outrage among Democrats.

The swearing-in occurred after the House convened to vote on a Senate-approved bill to reopen the government. Grijalva spoke on the House floor and immediately afterward signed the unblocking petition that would force a floor vote on the Justice Department’s obligation to release the complete files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, making her the 218th representative to support the initiative to force the House to vote on the release of all Epstein case files, an issue that has agitated the House and created division among Republicans.

Democrats argued that Johnson delayed Grijalva’s signing because her signature would be crucial for the floor vote and pointed to other instances where Johnson acted quickly to swear in Republicans who won their special elections. Johnson said Wednesday that he would put the measure requiring Congress to release the Epstein files to a vote next week – earlier than expected. Johnson defended his decision to postpone Grijalva’s swearing-in, arguing that she won the election on September 23rd, when the House was already in recess, and that he had promised to swear her in as soon as the House returned.

While waiting to be sworn in, Grijalva was unable to provide basic constituent services or even open an office in her district in southern Arizona. The House of Representatives has been in recess since September 19th, while Johnson pressed Democratic senators to reach an agreement with Republicans and vote to end the government shutdown. Democratic senators from Arizona confronted Johnson in the House corridors over the issue, and other Democrats organized protests in front of the Speaker’s office. The Arizona attorney general even sued the House of Representatives for the delay.

Grijalva filled the vacancy left by her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district in Congress for more than two decades before passing away in March after a battle with cancer. Leveraging the strength of her family name, she easily won the Democratic primaries this summer and then defeated Republican Daniel Butierez in the special election, winning about 70% of the vote.