Speaker of the House
Last week’s soap opera that took place on the House floor was day and nighttime drama at its best! After five days and 15 ballots, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected as Speaker of the House at 12:37 AM on Saturday. When McCarthy fell one vote short on the 14th ballot, he confronted Rep. Gaetz (R-FL) on the House floor. Reps Gaetz, Biggs, Boebert, Biggs, Crane, Good, and Rosendale flipped from a no vote to “present", which lowered the threshold to 216 to give McCarthy the win. There were some tense moments on the floor after McCarthy’s defeat on the 14th ballot. Rep. Rogers (R-AL) had to be restrained by Rep. Hudson (R-NC) when Rogers lunged at Rep. Gaetz for voting against McCarthy. McCarthy’s four-day Speakership battle underscores the challenges he will face in guiding the GOP’s narrow House majority through the rest of this Congress. In order to secure the votes, he made a series of concessions to conservatives, and changes to the rules package, that will significantly limit his power as Speaker.