WASHINGTON _ Rep. Brenda Jones was sworn into the House Thursday for a brief term that will expire at the end of the 115th Congress, and whose tenure is a break with more than 100 years of precedence since she will continue to serve in another elected office simultaneously.
The Michigan Democrat won the special election to fill the unexpired term of former Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who resigned in December 2017 following accusations of sexual misconduct. But Jones lost a separate election for a seat in the 116th congress to Rep.-elect Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Jones was not sworn in alongside the other special election winners earlier this month and at one point it was a question of whether she would be seated at all.
She currently serves as president of the Detroit City Council and there were questions about her holding two offices simultaneously.
The swearing in was made possible when the House, by unanimous consent, agreed to a resolution Thursday to allow Speaker Paul D. Ryan to swear Jones into the House without resigning her post on the city council.
The Constitution doesn't outright bar members of Congress from also holding another elective office, but the idea is generally frowned upon.
The move to set Jones upends a precedent that's stood since 1909 that serving in the House and holding a local office were incompatible. In 1909, the House vacated GOP Rep. George L. Lilley's seat when he won the governorship of Connecticut.
"She very much wanted to essentially be faithful to the votes of her constituents, and so all of us are here proudly to be with her," said fellow Michigander Rep. Sander Levin, a Democrat retiring at the end of this Congress.
"Thirteenth Congressional District, your voice has been heard," said Jones after being sworn in on the House floor. "And I am now seated as your representative of the United States of America. It is time to get to work. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves in this lame-duck session. Do what you expect me to do. And join my colleagues in getting the job done."
There is precedent for short-term, lame-duck lawmaker who serve roughly from Election Day until the end of the current term, whose tenures can be measured in weeks, or even days. In 2012, David Curson, a Democrat from Michigan, won a special election to fill the term of Thaddeus McCotter, who had resigned. In 2006, Shelley Sekula Gibbs won a special election for a seat held by GOP Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, who had resigned following an indictment.
