Republicans Successfully Choose New Speaker of the House

02 November, 2023

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After three weeks without a leader when Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker, the U.S. House of Representatives elected a new speaker. After several attempts to find a Republican who held enough party support, Representative Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, won the vote on October 25, 2023.

How McCarthy Lost the Position

The path to a new speaker lasted for over 22 days. For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives removed the speaker of the House from office during a congressional session. Representative Kevin McCarthy (a California Republican) had held the speaker’s job for only nine months. When McCarthy was selected as speaker in January 2023, he faced strong opposition from conservative Republicans. McCarthy convinced Republicans to vote for him but also gave any House member the power to introduce a motion to vacate (remove) the speaker. On October 2, 2023, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz initiated a motion to vacate Speaker McCarthy. Gaetz and other Republicans were upset that Speaker McCarthy compromised with Democrats in the House to avoid a government shutdown. The following day, 8 Republicans and 208 Democrats voted to remove McCarthy as speaker.

The Efforts to Find a New Speaker of the House

Immediately after McCarthy’s removal, Representative Patrick T. McHenry, of North Carolina, was named temporary speaker. His only power, however, was to preside over the election of a new speaker. In a closed-door meeting on October 11, the Republican Conference (a small committee made up of Republican Party leaders) chose Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana as the nominee for speaker. However, the following day, Scalise withdrew his name as a candidate. He told reporters that there were divisions within the Conference that needed to be resolved. He did not think he would receive enough support to win a vote of the full House members. To become speaker of the House, a candidate must win a majority of the cast votes. Because there were 433 current members of the House in October, the minimum number needed to win the role was 217.

On October 13, Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was selected as the next nominee. The full House of Representatives met on October 17 to hold a formal vote. Republicans nominated Jordan, while Democrats nominated Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries is a Democrat representing New York’s 8^th Congressional District. The Democratic Party holds fewer seats in the House than the Republicans, so Jeffries serves as the Minority Leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. Neither candidate reached the 217 votes needed to become speaker. Jordan received 200 votes and Jeffries received 212 votes. Twenty Republicans voted for someone other than Jordan.

The next day, the House held a second vote and again, Jordan failed to win. This time 22 Republicans voted to support someone other than Jordan. The third attempt to elect a speaker was on October 20. This time 25 of his fellow Republicans voted against Jordan. The Republican Conference then voted to drop Jordan as its nominee for speaker. That cleared the way for nine Republicans who announced their candidacies on October 22.

By the time the Conference met privately to select a nominee, two of the nine candidates had dropped out. It took five rounds of voting to nominate Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer on October 24. However, a vote to gauge support for Emmer showed at least 20 Republicans would oppose him in a full House election, and he would not win the minimum number of votes needed to become speaker. Former President Donald Trump also publicly opposed Emmer’s candidacy. Later that same day, Emmer withdrew.

The Republicans started over once more. Six candidates submitted their names for consideration. The Republican Conference voted three times before choosing Louisiana’s Mike Johnson as its nominee for a full House vote.

On October 25, the House gathered again to vote for a new speaker. Several representatives were not present for this vote, so the winner needed a minimum of 215 votes to become speaker. The Democrats again nominated Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to run against Johnson. Mike Johnson received all 220 Republican votes, while Jeffries received all 209 Democratic votes.

The New Speaker

Johnson was sworn in as the 56^th speaker of the House of Representatives on October 25th. Johnson began his political career in the Louisiana State Legislature in 2015. He has been in Congress since 2017 and serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Johnson is a supporter of former President Trump. He has also publicly questioned Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.