The United States House of Representatives has been thrown into chaos in the past few weeks as a result of the removal of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House. The Republican Party holds a razor thin majority at the moment after the 2022 midterms. The Speaker election in January was also quite chaotic as it took several ballots to get Speaker McCarthy instated. Now the three week battle to get a new speaker is over with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) having been elected Speaker on October 25th, hopefully putting an end to a tumultuous political drama.
It all started in September when Speaker McCarthy relied on Democratic support to pass a federal budget continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. This enraged the Freedom Caucus, a caucus made up of the most conservative members of the House, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a motion to vacate the Speakership. Gaetz and eight other Republicans, along with all Democrats, voted to remove McCarthy in a 216-210 vote. This is the first time in US history that a Speaker has been removed during a legislative session. With this development, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) was named temporary speaker while Republicans looked for a new leader to be their candidate for Speaker while Democrats voted unanimously for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to be their candidate.
Originally, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was chosen to represent the Republicans but due to resistance from several Republicans, Scalise withdrew. The second choice was Jim Jordan (R-OH), a controversial Republican ally of former President Trump, but two ballots for Speaker saw Jordan fail as over 25 other Republicans voted for other candidates. Many moderate and traditionally conservative Republicans opposed Jordan’s hardline views and he was subsequently removed by the Republicans on October 20th. On October 24th, House Republicans selected House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) as their 3rd choice but even then, some Republicans refused to back Emmer,causing him to back out. Eventually, the GOP settled on Johnson, who won the Speakership with the unanimous support of the Republicans when the vote for Speaker went to the House floor in a 220-209 vote against Jeffries.
Many Americans had not heard of Johnson before recent weeks. The Louisiana Congressman has been in Congress since 2016 and was Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference prior to being chosen as Speaker. Johnson is a member of the Christian right wing of the Republican Party and has close ties to numerous evangelical political groups. He has supported a nationwide abortion ban, the curtailing of marriage equality, an end to US funding of Ukraine, and prayer in public schools.
Criticism has been levied towards the GOP for the chaos within the House. Several Republicans who voted against Jordan have received credible death threats. Gaetz has been blasted for causing this mess by many within the GOP. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) called for Gaetz’s expulsion. Unconfirmed reports of tense and nearly explosive meetings in the GOP Conference came out. Now, it’s unknown what will happen for the rest of this legislative session. Many are now wondering if this chaos could negatively affect House Republicans chances in 2024.
