Arizona’s Democratic senators pressed Mike Johnson on Wednesday to swear in their state’s newest representative, Adelita Grijalva, but the Republican House speaker refused to budge until funding for the government was restored.
Grijalva, a Democrat, last month won a special election to replace her late father, Raúl M Grijalva, in a southern Arizona House district. However, she has been unable to assume her new role because Johnson has not administered the oath of office.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, Arizona’s two Democratic senators, gathered to take questions from the press in front of the speaker’s office in the Capitol. Johnson soon arrived, and the Democrats pressed him on when Grijalva would be sworn in.
“We’re going to do that as soon as we get back to work, but we need the lights turned back on, so we encourage both of you to go open the government,” the speaker replied, according to video of the exchange.
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