A Brief History
On January 4, 2023, the United States House of Representatives is struggling to elect a new Speaker of the House to succeed Nancy Pelosi. With a slight Republican majority, the assumption is that a leading Republican congressman would routinely be elected, but this is NOT the case! At least 4 votes so far on January 3 and January 4 have failed to produce a new speaker. Who should get the job?
Update: As of January 6 at 3 pm, at least 13 votes have been held without a Speaker being selected. Also, former President Donald Trump, previously rumored to be a long-shot possibility as Speaker, has finally received at least one vote (from Representative Matt Gaetz).
Digging Deeper
Here are some candidates that have received votes so far:
- Kevin McCarthy, Republican representative from California since 2007, previously the Minority Leader, Majority Leader, and Republican Whip. His alma mater is California State University.
- Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic representative from New York since 2013, previously Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. His alma mater is New York University for his JD.
- Byron Donalds, Republican representative from Florida since 2021. His alma mater is Florida State University.
- Jim Jordan, Republican representative from Ohio since 2007, previously Chair of the House Freedom Caucus. His alma maters include University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University, and Capital University.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Follett, Mary Parker. The Speaker of the House of Representatives. Franklin Classics, 2018.
Page, Susan. Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power. Twelve, 2021.
The featured image in this article, the de facto flag of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is in the public domain. This may be because it was taken by an employee of the Office of the Speaker as part of that person’s official duties, or because it has been released into the public domain and posted on speaker.gov or an official social media account of the Speaker. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
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