In Tim’s first interview with The Contrarian, he sits down with Rep. Elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) to discuss everything from her deliberately delayed swear-in to the Epstein files.
“I described it as someone gives you a car and says, okay, drive, and the car doesn’t have an engine, gas, or wheels,” Rep. Elect Grijalva shares, detailing the roadblocks she faces while in Congressional purgatory. She also gives us an inside peak at what she has learned so far about Congressional dysfunction and what causes she seeks to champion as a representative.
Adelita Grijalva is the U.S. representative-elect for Arizona’s 7th congressional district. She previously served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and worked at Pima County Teen Court for more than 25 years.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Tim Dickinson
Hi, this is Tim Dickinson. I am a senior writer and editor with The Contrarian. I’m here today with Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grishalva, who was elected in September to a Senate seat in Arizona… a congressional seat in Arizona. But has been so far unable to get sworn in. And so I wonder, Congresswoman-Elect, if you could just walk us through a little bit what has led to this impasse of you being unable to do your job for your constituents. You’re on mute, I think.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Yes. I was elected September 23rd, which is 48 days ago. And I thought… we looked at the calendar of votes, and I thought, oh good, there’s votes on the 29th and 30th, that’s when I’m gonna get sworn in. And then those were summarily, like, canceled, and one of them became a pro forma session. Then the calendar again had dates. It’s starting October 7th, so I thought, great, I’ll be sworn in October 7th. And literally every week. We’ve just been hitting refresh, following Speaker Johnson’s press conferences to find out what is in the works for me, because since then, I’ve been in a complete limbo. Speaker Johnson first said my race had to be certified, and then realized very shortly that for the other three members of Congress that he swore in, he did that in under 24 hours without certification. So, that, you know, excuse was debunked, and then it was, well, we don’t swear in during a pro forma, and we’re not going to have any sessions, you know, in the near future, and we’re not going to have sessions during a shutdown. Well, we… we swore in an entire class in 2019 during the shutdown. And this speaker swore in two Republican, members-elect less than 24 hours after their election, but on a pro forma session day. So, here we are. I mean, literally every excuse in the book has been given, and now I believe that since we have something to vote on from the Senate, he has decided to go ahead and get us all back, you know, get the Republicans back from vacation, and vote. So we have been in this shutdown for 41 days.
Tim Dickinson
The news today…
Adelita S. Grijalva
Today!
Tim Dickinson
You… and do you have a date certain that you’re gonna get sworn in, or just sort of a pinky promise that this is gonna.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Those details, you know, that’s what I’m saying, I’m like, I don’t… I don’t hold my breath anymore about when things will happen, because again, I had flights, my family, everyone ready to be there on October 7th, and then that was, you know, just summarily dismissed as another statement about there being a work, you know, we’re all gonna work in district kind of thing. So, yes, I… from what I understand, he made a comment during a press conference, and just recently on a show on CNN that he will swear me in before we have any votes, so if that’s the case, the very first vote will be, you know, first opportunity for me to vote will be on the proposal from the Senate.
Tim Dickinson
Now, I imagine you must have sort of mixed feelings about this Senate deal that has come to pass, that it’s gonna maybe allow you to be sworn in finally after 50 days or so.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Yeah, I, you know…
Tim Dickinson
The actual deal, and what it means for your constituents.
Adelita S. Grijalva
we don’t get anything from the deal. You know, there was a lot of suffering that people went through federal workers, everyone during the shutdown, but overwhelmingly, I heard from people, keep fighting, because what you’re fighting for is the good fight. Healthcare for everyone should be something that we… I mean, is a minimum. It’s the… it’s the… it’s the base of what we should be doing. And so, when you look at this compromise. We don’t get anything but a potential future promise from Senator, you know, from, Speaker Thune, saying, hey, we’re gonna go ahead and, and vote on this, but there is no reciprocal commitment from Speaker Johnson for the House. So, that’s part of the problem is, you know, these… we’re independent. We’re not dependent on each other in what we’re going to do. Like, just because Thune says he commits to having a vote on ACA subsidies, Speaker Johnson has very clearly sidestepped that. I just heard him do it. You know, so we have… we get nothing from this, this bill, and it’s unfortunate that I’m gonna have to vote no, and my frustration is Republicans keep talking horribly about ACA and Obamacare, and since 2010, they’ve had an opportunity to work on a… on something that they feel meets Their needs better. They don’t have anything. They’re talking about what it might look like. They’re putting, again, the responsibility on Democrats to find a better compromise for them. It’s like, you’ve had 15 years to work on something. Why is that now our responsibility when ACA might not be perfect? But it is better than what the alternative is in that horrible bill, which is nothing.
Tim Dickinson
Can you talk a bit about… you even filed suit with the, Attorney General of Arizona to force Mike Johnson’s hand in this weird refusal to swear you in. Can you talk about what that has meant for your constituents to not have to be… to have taxation without representation for the last 50-odd days?
Adelita S. Grijalva
Oh, I’ve heard that a lot. This is taxation without representation, and honestly, everywhere I go, you can hear the chants, they just start to swear her in, and I’m like, once I’ve sworn in, I don’t know what they’re gonna say when they see me, maybe just hi? I don’t know. But, you know, it’s been very frustrating because you know, I’m so glad that Attorney General Mays is in Arizona and willing to fight these fights, because if we had another representative, I’m not sure that they would have done it, because I don’t think that in any scenario, we want House leadership in Congress to be told what to do by the judiciary. But in this case, this was an incredible abuse of power. It was an incredible, it’s against the Constitution, it’s against our democracy. Free and fair elections is a basic you know, pillar of our democracy, and for Speaker Johnson to be so dismissive of, you know, 813,000 people in southern Arizona. It’s not acceptable. And it really highlights, I think how… Corrupt and, this system can be under a certain kind of leader. And so, one of the things that I want to do very early on is propose legislation to ensure that no member-elect is ever put in this position again. Because we know this is a precedent. So, if he can push me off for over 50 days by the time I’m sworn in, what will he do to others? And that’s just not fair, it’s not our democracy, it’s not fair, and it’s illegal, and shouldn’t happen again.
Tim Dickinson
Can you talk just a bit about your district, and the sort of unique makeup of the people that you represent, and who’s been denied a voice in Congress over this time?
Adelita S. Grijalva
Well, we have… the three ports of entry with Mexico are in Arizona CD7, a very diverse community of rural and urban here in Tucson. We have the lettuce capital of the world in Yuma, we have Douglas, Nogales, Bisbee. And every area in between. And so, our area is very diverse, it’s beautiful, if you ever have an opportunity to come. And, you know, the needs of the people are very diverse. We have a large number of veterans in our community. One in six federal workers were veterans, and many of them lost their jobs during this period of time. We have 58,000 federal workers in Arizona. And a lot of grants, and our universities rely on this community. We have… so I just feel like It’s so beautiful, and the people of this community overwhelmingly elected me to represent them and fight for the issues that we care about, which is public education, our environment, affordability, and protecting our democracy. So that’s why I’m very eager to get to those issues, because while Epstein has been a focal point as to why many believe, including myself, that I have… this delay has happened in my swearing in, what’s really important is the work that is coming for Southern Arizona.
Tim Dickinson
And I did want to foreground that, but since you brought up the Epstein issue, clearly you’ve been sort of sideswiped by this secondary issue, where you represent the 218th vote for a discharge petition that will allow the release of the Epstein files to come up for a vote. What is your… is it your sense that your delay was in some part, an obstructionist tactic to keep those documents from coming to light, and what do you expect, Your vote to help release those is gonna bring about.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Yeah, I do believe that they’re connected. I didn’t initially, because I thought, well, that’s crazy. It’s very conspiracy theory, right? Like, that’s not the reason. And then you look at all of the factors and this delay, and you look at the promise that Trump made when he was campaigning for this presidency, on… on day one, I’m gonna release those Epstein files. And he’s had almost, you know, 11 months to do it and hasn’t done it. And so you have to wonder what’s in there, and what’s going to be released, but the larger picture for me is justice for the survivors and consequences for people who committed crimes against children and women. They, I mean, they need to have justice, and they need to see it, and so if my signature helps, expedite that, then I’m happy to do it.
Tim Dickinson
I knew your father just a little bit, and he was a great public servant. As I congratulate you, I want to sort of mark on his passing, because he was a really great public servant. I wonder, as you move into this job, finally, how do you hope to carry on his legacy? What were his most important issues, and what are your priorities going to be as you move into this job?
Adelita S. Grijalva
I don’t think it’s any surprise at all. I am very proudly Raul Brijalva’s daughter, and he raised us with the same values. Absolutely. And so the issues that I talked about, public education, environment, affordability, standing up for immigrants. That’s what he did. He was a voice for those who didn’t have one, and I learned from him that that’s the fight you take. You stand up for those who can’t. And you scream louder for those who are not at the table. And so, I will absolutely be doing… taking on many of the issues that are important to both of us. But how we do it will be different, because the fights that I’m dealing with are different than the ones he did. When he came into Congress 22 years ago, there was, a collegial sort of feeling. You didn’t have to be the same party to be able to be decent to each other. And I’m going to continue to treat everyone with the respect that I would want back, but I also appreciate that, you know, we can read walking down the hall next to colleagues that just can… just ignore you. And that’s not something that happened when, you know, my dad was there, and And so, it’s a very different environment. I don’t think you can negotiate with extremists, and so my hope is at the midterms, we’re going to actually have communities that elect members of Congress that are willing to work together for the American people.
Tim Dickinson
That really does seem to be a divide now between people who are willing to stand up and really pitch a fight, and people who are still trying to grasp onto those old ways, like, oh, the Senate is the place where these ideas go to settle down, we don’t need to really have a pitched battle because, you know, this is just some temporary overreach, and we’ll get back to normal soon. What is your position on that? Do you feel like Congress is really a changed animal at this point?
Adelita S. Grijalva
Yeah, we need to… we need to fight to get it back to some place where we’re actually all focused on one thing, and it is protecting the American people, protecting our Constitution, protecting people’s rights. that’s not where we are. Right now, you have…a significant portion of Congress that have pledged allegiance to Trump, not to… America, and so we need to pull back, really. We really do. I mean, this… I come from an immigrant community, my tatto was a bracero from Mexico, and my dad is a member of Congress, so in one generation, that happened because of a lot of hard work in public education, and many families are like mine. Where you want the next generation to have opportunities that you don’t have. And this is the first generation that I feel we are doing a disservice to our young… to our younger people in our communities. My… you know, I think that before you had, like, these entry-level positions in different places where, you know, new college graduates would be able to go and Kind of… you figure out what career paths they want. Those jobs don’t exist anymore, because people are working way past their retirement in order to continue to provide a quality of life for their families, because affordability does not exist. Under this administration, the cost of everything has gone up, but what people bring home every day in the form of a paycheck has stayed the same or lowered. A lot of people have lost their jobs, hundreds of thousands of people. And so, you know, when a shutdown threatens food on kitchen tables, that’s something that should never happen again. Because in this community here in southern Arizona, 900,000 people relied on SNAP. Head Start programs, senior feeding pro… I mean, programs in general rely on SNAP. And this administration doesn’t care about people’s needs, they just care about giving tax breaks to their friends, and enriching themselves. And that’s not a nation that I want to raise my kids in, so I have to fight to get it back to something that I’ll be proud of, and we can all be proud of.
Tim Dickinson
But before I let you go, can you describe what this last… I know you’ve had an office, and I know you’ve had computers, and you’ve posted on social media about not being able to log into them. Can you just give us some insight into, like, what kind of bizarre, semi-limbo you’ve been in as an aspiring or elected member of Congress who’s not been sworn in?
Adelita S. Grijalva
It’s a different multiverse, yeah, that’s how I feel. So, my… the office in DC is my dad’s old office, and so it was totally cleared out, which is what protocol says, and And it’s… it’s an office. It’s a desk, it’s a space. They issued me a computer and a phone, but I don’t have access to any of the databases that go with them, so I can’t onboard staff. like, fully, because we can have constituent services in district, because I don’t have a budget, because I’m not an authorized administrator, I can’t sign into a lease. So, I mean, it has been… it’s… it literally… I described it as someone gives you a car and says, okay, drive, and the car doesn’t have an engine, gas, or wheels. Like, that’s literally how it’s felt. And so, you know, when Speaker Johnson makes these sort of flippant comments about she should be helping her constituents. Respectfully, I have no constituents until I’m sworn in.I’ve won an election. I don’t have constituents. I have people who supported me, I have people I feel very responsible to, but I cannot… it’s not just about laws. It’s about providing services to people who have questions about their VA benefits, their Social Security, their immigration. I mean, there’s so much of what happens as a member of Congress. The meat and potatoes, like, the real work, is in district. And here. I’m at my headquarters. I don’t have an office here, because I can’t sign a lease. Yeah, it’s been really, really frustrating, that piece of it. It’s been… and it’s heartbreaking because my dad served this community for 22 years. People are still going to his office. And they’re still pulling on the door. I have, you know, I run into people at the grocery store, and they’re like, I went to your office, and you’re not there. And it’s because they are used to having a Grijalba have their back on issues. Like, I know that I can call Grijalva, and they’re gonna help me. And so, that’s what I want to be able to do for this community, and that is what I am looking forward to.
Tim Dickinson
Do you have any final thoughts that you want to leave us with? I thank you for your time today.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Of course, no, I just, this obstruction in swearing me in really did highlight a lot of cracks in the foundation, and for a lot of people. I mean, I had…Republicans and Democrats come up to me saying, what they’re doing to you is not okay. Like, it is really not okay. And so that, to me, is… really gave… has given me some marching orders in the very short run of things that have to happen, and legislation that has to be introduced in order to ensure this doesn’t happen to another person, and that you can’t force a shutdown this long. I mean, had we been in session, not only would I have been sworn in, but we would have been able to negotiate something that the senators might have actually been able to vote on on a bipartisan basis. You know, that… this delay, in swearing me in, I think, just really highlighted how broken the system is, and how much work we have to do to fix it.
Tim Dickinson
Well, I’ve appreciated your time and your insight today. Thank you so much.
Adelita S. Grijalva
Thank you! It was a pleasure.
