2023's House Speaker Reelection
A Brief History
The U.S. House of Representatives generally elects a new speaker at the inception of a new Congress, choosing from a selection of nominees determined prior to the official election. Since 1913, the House has had to elect a new Speaker during a sitting Congress only six times, and only due to the impending resignation or unforeseen death of the previous Speaker.
Since 1789, there have been 16 instances in which the Speaker election required multiple ballots before a final consensus was reached. The last instance, in 1923, required the 118th Congress to hold nine ballots before determining a victor. However, the accolade for the longest-running series of ballots belongs to Representative Nathaniel Banks, who ran as a Republican in 1855. Challenged by opinions about his past as a political chameleon and his anti-slavery views within a highly contentious House, Rep. Banks took 133 votes over the course of two months to secure the speakership.
The Contemporary Debate
America’s 118th Congress currently sits embroiled in yet another highly fractious debate over the speakership. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, was ousted in early October, with Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina taking over in the interim. Many judge McCarthy to have long been on the ropes with a handful of hard-right Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus, who attempted to push Congress to a highly-disruptive government shutdown in a public display of opposition in September.
After Rep. McCarthy was removed, the House underwent 22 days of voting in a paralytic chamber to determine who, among the slew of contentious candidates, would gain the speakership.
Current Events
Among contenders earlier this month were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a venerable party leader, and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio who, supported by the Freedom Caucus faction, was endorsed by former President Donald John Trump.
The attempts to boost Rep. Jordan to the speakership was highly criticized, judged as indicative of the Freedom Caucus group’s ulterior motive in ousting McCarthy to replace him with their own, predetermined candidate to lead the House. Some Republican Majority leaders further blamed House Democrats for the extended duration of the ballot process, causing further strife within the House over remarks labeled “clearly salty” by MSNBC.
However, it seems that much of the controversy over the position is over as, just last Wednesday, Republicans elected Lousianan Rep. Mike Johnson with a single ballot. Rep. Johnson was recommended for election by Trump in a tweet, which read:
"I am not going to make an Endorsement in this race, because I COULD NEVER GO AGAINST ANY OF THESE FINE AND VERY TALENTED MEN, all of whom have supported me, in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory. In 2024, we will have an even bigger, & more important, WIN! My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!"
Though Johnson is a relatively inexperienced speaker, his role in supporting Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020, as well as his solidly conservative voting history and anti-abortion stance, seems to be enough to have quelled the tension in the House Majority over this drawn-out and convoluted election. Whether he will remain a pacifying force in a Congress suffering deep turmoil, however, is yet to be determined.
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