Mike M (@mikemcd1.bsky.social)

Arizona Democrat wins special congressional election — putting Republicans in the hot seat WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders are poised to face their biggest challenges yet after a Democrat won the special election for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, further narrowing the GOP’s slim majority and likely forcing action on the Epstein files. Adelita Grijalva — daughter of the late Rep. Raul Grijalva, who previously held the seat — was declared the winner of a special election on Tuesday, bringing the House makeup to 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats. It doesn’t alter Republicans’ two-seat majority just yet, but it will offer Democrats rare opportunities to push Republicans into a corner on hot-button issues. Republican pushes ahead to force vote on Epstein files — even as GOP leaders eye alternatives Top of the list: A bipartisan effort to release the Jeffrey Epstein files in full. “We are hearing from voters that they believe the survivors deserve justice, and Congress must fulfill its duty to check the executive branch and hold Trump accountable,” Grijalva told the Arizona Daily Star about signing the petition before the election results were called. The House isn’t scheduled to return until Oct. 7, making that the earliest day Grijalva can be sworn in as a member. After that, she is expected to sign on to an existing discharge petition compelling the Justice Department to publish all its investigative materials related to the convicted sex offender, making her the 218th and final signature needed to schedule a vote. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., filed the discharge petition earlier this month, which allows lawmakers to bring legislation to the House floor even without leadership’s approval — so long as they get a majority of House members to sign on. Grijalva would join all House Democrats who have already signed on as well as four Republicans, including Massie and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. GOP leadership has been wary to force a vote on the matter due to opposition from President Donald Trump, with a White House official even telling the Deseret News in early September that a signature on the petition would “be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.” Instead, Republicans passed a resolution to encourage the House Oversight Committee to continue its current investigation into Epstein — an inquiry that has already resulted in the Justice Department handing over thousands of pages to lawmakers last month. But Massie has argued that resolution only requires the Oversight Committee to publish the documents that are handed over by the DOJ — whereas he wants the DOJ itself to release all documents in its possession. It’s not yet clear when a vote on the Epstein files could be scheduled. Once the 218 signatures are secured, the petition is “frozen” and printed into the congressional record, according to House rules. The petition must then sit for seven legislative days before a signatory of the petition can request a floor vote. After that, leaders would only have two days to schedule the vote. That means the earliest a vote could occur is mid-October. ### Republicans feel the squeeze on government funding The Democrat addition to House ranks also hints toward future challenges House GOP leaders could face. Republicans are already working with a historically slim margin that makes passing legislation a difficult task. That’s only expected to get harder. Government spending is set to lapse at the end of this month, and Republicans are pushing to punt the shutdown deadline until Nov. 21. That spending extension narrowly passed in the House with minimal Democratic support, and took a heavy lift from GOP leaders to get a majority of their rank-and-file members on board. That spending extension has not yet been passed by the Senate. But if it does, things could only get trickier for Republicans if they want to pass a funding bill that continues to cut government spending. Trump cancels meeting with Democratic leaders over social media — increasing the risk of shutdown By then, House Democrats will likely have another member sworn in to replace former Rep. Sylvester Turner in Texas who died earlier this year. That district is a D+21 seat. That’ll set up the winner to be sworn in sometime during the first week of November, bringing the House makeup to 215-219 — meaning Republicans can only lose one party member on any given vote if all Democrats vote against. That’ll put pressure on Republican leaders to keep their party in line on major agenda items for the rest of the congressional session, assuming no other Democrat steps down from office. That could be easier said than done as there have been multiple pieces of legislation — including Trump’s signature “Big Beautiful Bill Act” — that saw more than one Republican break party lines to oppose. https://www.deseret.com/politics/2025/09/23/arizona-special-election-makes-things-tricky-for-republicans/