Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been ousted as Speaker of the House. McCarthy became the first Speaker to ever be voted out of the position while in their current term. Democrats voted to remove him unanimously, with eight Republicans pushing the vote to a majority against McCarthy.
Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led the charge against McCarthy citing McCarthy’s willingness to compromise with Democrats on the budget to avoid a government shutdown. This wasn’t a surprise for McCarthy, who has decided not to seek reelection, saying that whether or not he got a budget passed or the government shutdown, Gaetz and his seven colleagues would vote him out regardless.
Steve Scalice (R-LA) won the original closed doors vote with all GOP members, but removed himself from contention after realizing he likely would not have the floor votes needed to be named Speaker. Since then, Trump-endorsed Jim Jordan (R-OH), has become the front runner and also won a closed door GOP vote after Scalise dropped out.
Jordan has been known to be a stout Trump ally and and founding member of the Freedom Caucus. He is the type of speaker Gaetz was looking for whe ousting McCarthy, but his popularity among the House GOP remains unknown. Jordan lost his initial floor vote on Oct. 17, receiving only 200 votes. In order to be named Speaker, a candidate needs to receive a majority of the 435 members, should they all vote for a candidate and not vote present.
Should all members vote for a candidate, Jordan would need to receive 217 votes. There are 221 House Republicans, meaning that Jordan can only lose 4 GOP votes. On Jordan’s first vote, all all 212 House Democrats voted for Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), like they did for all of McCarthy’s attempts at the speakeship. 20 GOP members voted against Jordan, with McCarthy, Scalise, Zeldin, Rep. Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Garcia (R-CA), Rep. Cole (R-LA), and Rep. Massie (R-KY) all receiving votes.
The House held a second vote on Oct. 18, where Jordan once again did not receive the votes necessary to win the speakership. Jordan lost even more Republican votes in his second vote than the frist, as Democrats again all voted for Jeffries. Between the two votes, Jordan and his allies attempted to swing votes towards his direction, but in the process lost several. House Republicans recognized that Jordan would likely never have the votes needed to win the speakership and are attempting to expedite the process towards a new nominee who has a stronger chance at winning a floor vote.
One candidate that has been mentioned by some House Republicans is Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who has been serving as speaker pro tempore since McCarthy was voted out of the position. McHenry is one of McCarthy’s top allies and many within the GOP feel that he has a better chance at winning a floor vote than Jordan would after two failed attempts and trending in the wrong direction.
“I think it is a revolutionary and truly historical event. Ultimately it will be interesting to see who the new speaker of the house will be. While it may be sad for the Republican Party as they will likely not regain a true speaker of the house,” said Sophomore politics major Ryan Hemmings.
“You would hope that congress would choose to not play politics, though we have a nominee Jim Jordan he still had a lot to worry about since 50 Republicans voted against his nomination. Republicans need to work together and I know Democrats are watching from the sidelines. with this amount of disarray in the house I think it’s bad news for democrats too since the chamber is pretty much frozen and there is nothing that our government can do for Israel in terms of aid.” said senior politics major James Maloney.
Democratic lawmakers remain frustrated at the inability of the GOP to come together and elect a speaker. Unlike their own party, Republicans have no clear path to electing a speaker and allowing the House to establish a budget and continue to legislate. “I think what you could see develop here would be a three way race, for a moderate Republican to emerge right now. They could win that race and we could work with them to get the job done,” Democratic Congresswoman Ammie Kuster said in a CNN interview. “And I think what we need is a Speaker of whatever stripes that’s going to stand up for the institution, for Congress, working for the American people, and not lurching from one crisis to the next to the next.”
With the House at a standstill with no leadership, no legislation can be passed or initiatives advanced through committees. Before voting out McCarthy, Congress was able to pass a 45 day budget, which is set to expire in the beginning of November. As long as the hunt for the speakership drags on, it grows more unlikely that they will be able to establish a budget for the coming year, which would likely lead to a government shutdown. With the 2024 primary season heating up ahead of the Iowa caucuses, the spotlight is on the GOP to allow Congress to perform their duties and serve the American people, which would start with creating a budget before the government is forced to shut down.
