Erika D. Smith, Columnist

The House Has a New Democrat — and a Shrinking GOP Margin

But Speaker Johnson appears to be in no rush to swear in Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva.

September 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC

Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member.

Ready to get to work.
Photographer: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

When Arizona’s longtime congressman, the staunchly progressive Democrat Raúl Grijalva, died of cancer earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson couldn’t have known that it would set in motion a series of events that would lead to a political crisis for Republicans.

But timing, as they say, is everything — and, right now, time is not on Johnson’s side.