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Speaker of the House of Representatives Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (Republican of North Carolina), left, talks with House Speaker nominee United States Representative Jim Jordan (Republican of Ohio) in the moments prior to the vote for Speaker of the House of Representatives, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, Wednesday, October 18, 2023. The House of Representatives has been without speaker since Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (Republican of California) was ousted from the speakership on October 4, 2023, during a vote initiated by United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican of Florida), and led by a small group of fellow Republicans.
Are Republicans giving up on electing a speaker?
Having failed to win the backing of the 217 Republican members he needed to become speaker of the US House of Representatives in two rounds of voting, Jim Jordan of Ohio announced Thursday morning that he would not call for a third vote. He did not, however, withdraw his name from future consideration. For now, he remains the official Republican Party nominee for speaker.
Jordan then endorsed a plan to empower temporary speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina to reopen the House to advance its most urgent business through Jan. 3, 2024. The need to respond to the Israel crisis and to bargain with Democrats to avoid yet another threatened government shutdown next month has created some support for this plan.
Yet, there isn’t yet enough support from GOP members to advance this plan either – it requires a simple majority of House members – and faced with the reality they might have to turn to Democrats for the votes they need, they abandoned the plan to empower McHenry. Jordan then said he would push for another vote on his own candidacy, but without saying when.
For now, the GOP chaos of the past three weeks leaves little reason for optimism that Republicans will unify behind any speaker candidate anytime soon.
This is the longest period that political divisions have left the House of Representatives without a speaker since debates over slavery stopped House business in 1856.
What's next after Kevin McCarthy's ouster?
Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, DC shares his perspective on US politics.
Kevin McCarthy' is out. What's next?
So Kevin McCarthy today became the first speaker in American history to be removed from his job involuntarily, and the House is now going to be plunged into a period of uncertainty, with American governance losing the leader of one of its most important branches.
Patrick McHenry, a representative from North Carolina and an ally of Kevin McCarthy, is going to be the interim speaker and he will have to be able to execute most of the duties of the speaker, at least until there could be a new vote to replace him. But the question is going to be, who on earth has 218 votes to become speaker in this environment?
There's a small group of conservatives who are showing a lot of muscle here by taking McCarthy out, and they could do that to a future speaker as well, all over the issue of spending, and what's likely to happen now is that you get possibly flat funding on spending into next year. And the biggest loser from all of this could end up being Ukraine aid, because the same group that took McCarthy out are among the biggest opponents of additional Ukraine aid in the United States Congress, and that can make funding a new round of Ukraine aid well into 2024 a lot more difficult than the Biden administration was hope for.
So this could potentially have, this is a small vote that started with a disgruntled member from Florida, that could have massive geopolitical consequences that are felt for years.