On Tuesday Oct. 3, The House of Representatives, in a rebellion led by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, voted 216 to 210 to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy from his position as House Speaker after he relied on Democratic votes to get a short-term spending deal passed to avert a government shutdown.
In order to secure the position of speaker in Jan. 2023, after coming up short 15 votes, McCarthy agreed to significant concessions demanded by a small faction of conservative Republicans in exchange for dropping their opposition to him.
Among those compromises, he agreed to amend the house rules, to allow a single member to make a motion to remove him as speaker. Since House Republicans rule with a small majority, this compromise elevated the influence of these individual members.
The point that ignited the movement to remove the speaker was the passage of a stop-gap funding measure, called a Continuing Resolution (CR), forestalling a government shutdown for 45 days along with an alleged side deal with the administration to provide more funding for Ukraine.
Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was a vocal leader of the anti-McCarthy effort in the house. Seeing an opportunity in response to the passage of the 45 day CR, Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the Chair on Oct. 2, 2023.
208 Democrats and eight Republicans voted to remove McCarthy, setting up a vote of 216 to 210 against the speaker.
Republicans Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, and Matt Rosendale all voted to remove McCarthy.
While McCarthy first signaled a desire to fight this motion, he ultimately did not resist the decision and even announced that he would not be running for speaker again.
This, of course, opens up opportunities for new and more popular candidates. While others, including former President Trump have also shown interest, ultimately it will be a choice between Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH).
This is the first time in United States political history that the Speaker of the House has been removed from office.
The house reconvened on Oct. 10 to select a new successor. An internal secret ballot was held on Oct. 12 where Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) received 113 votes and Representative Jim Jordan (R- OH) received 99.
Scalise or any other Republican candidate for speaker needs 217 votes to win the role of speaker, a majority of the entire House, meaning they can only afford to lose four Republicans.
Electing the speaker consists of a time-consuming debate whereby lawmakers are permitted to speak on behalf of their favored candidate, followed by a roll-call vote.
As of now, Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the Chair of House Financial Services, is serving as speaker pro tempore. His job is to “exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate pending the election of a Speaker.”
McHenry does not have the authority to bring a resolution to the floor or pass additional funding measures.
