The Arizona secretary of state on Tuesday certified the election of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat who won a special election 22 days ago in her state.
But Speaker Mike Johnson is still refusing to seat her while he keeps the House out of session during the government shutdown.
So on Wednesday morning, a group of Arizona lawmakers gathered in front of the Capitol and accused Mr. Johnson of protecting pedophiles, obstructing the will of voters and taking an unprecedented political action in refusing to perform the simple ministerial duty of swearing in an elected member of Congress.
“This delay is not procedural, it is intentional,” said Ms. Grijalva, who is poised to provide the final signature needed to force a floor vote on whether to demand that the Trump administration release the Epstein files. “He is doing everything in his power to shield this administration from accountability. That is not leadership, that is obstruction.”
The Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, has threatened legal action against Mr. Johnson for failing to seat the congresswoman-elect, and Ms. Grijalva said Wednesday that she had also been exploring what legal options she has to officially claim her seat. For now, she said, she had to wait for someone to let her into the Capitol complex on Wednesday morning because she could not yet enter on her own.
“This is unprecedented, and it’s wrong, and the speaker is doing this purely for political reasons,” said Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona.
Mr. Johnson has insisted that he cannot and will not seat Ms. Grijalva while the House is out of session. There is no such rule for swearing in a duly elected member of Congress. The House can continue to operate even in the event of a government shutdown, and lawmakers may be sworn in even when the chamber is not meeting for legislative business.
Mr. Johnson himself swore in two Florida Republicans who won their seats in special elections earlier this year while the House was in a recess. He said he would not do so for Ms. Grijalva because she was elected while the House was out of session, a distinction that has no bearing on the legitimacy of her election.
He has claimed that his reluctance to seat Ms. Grijalva has nothing to do with avoiding a politically painful vote on legislation that calls on the Justice Department to quickly release all materials from its closed investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats contend that is the only reason that Mr. Johnson is refusing to act.
“Speaker Johnson is protecting pedophiles, that’s what this is about,” Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, said Wednesday. “The only thing that’s been consistent the whole time is that Speaker Johnson is covering up for pedophiles.”
For now, the only tool immediately available to Democrats is an ongoing public pressure campaign that so far has not yielded any results.
“Speaker Johnson keeps moving the goal posts,” said Representative Adriano Espaillat, Democrat of New York and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The morning news conference followed an attempt a day earlier to embarrass Mr. Johnson into action. On Tuesday afternoon, a group of Democratic lawmakers marched to the speaker’s office together to demand that he swear in Ms. Grijalva, who won a special election last month to succeed her father, Representative Raúl Grijalva, after his death in March.
“What is he afraid of? Epstein!” the Democrats sang as a call-and-response chant as they walked through the Capitol.
But Mr. Johnson was not there. He was attending a ceremony at the White House honoring the slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Last week, the two Democratic senators from Arizona confronted Mr. Johnson in person in the hallway outside of his office. None of it has swayed Mr. Johnson, but Democrats appear intent on trying to humiliate him until he does what they believe is the right thing.
As he walked back to the Capitol after Wednesday’s morning news conference, Mr. Gallego wanted to make sure his message had not been lost on the reporters who had assembled.
“Speaker Johnson is covering up for pedophiles, did you guys get that?” he said. “Speaker Johnson is covering up for pedophiles.”
