The Speaker of the House Vote.

News | Konor Nichols | January 10th, 2023.

After news of Nancy Pelosi’s step down from power and a power shift in the House of Representatives, the results for the much anticipated Speaker of the House election are in, and Republican Kevin McCarthy has been elected as the new House Speaker.

As of November 2022, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would “not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next congress” and that “the hour [had] come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that [she] so deeply respect[s].”

Following this announcement, the Democratic Party began searching for a new nominee to lead the party in the next generation of the chamber. Of the options, the party ultimately nominated Hakeem Jeffries, the first African-American lawmaker to be nominated for the Speaker of the House position.

Additional recent changes to the House include the 2022 midterm elections, which resulted in the Republican Party seizing a narrow majority. This election proved to be extremely high stakes: out of all the seats up for grabs, 36 were considered toss-ups, and a mere five seat changes were necessary to dictate a change in party control. The election’s results incited a shift in power from the Democrats to the Republicans, who now hold a 5-seat margin for the majority.

With an already polarized chamber, the Speaker of the House vote proved to be a very tight and dragged-out race, with 15 voting rounds in total. The long process came as a result of neither party reaching the 218-vote threshold to win the race. Along the way, McCarthy rallied support via the concessions he made to cut government spending to win over fiscal Republicans, who had previously withheld their support for him. After a long 15 rounds of voting, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected as the new House Speaker with a 216-212 margin on January 7, 2023. Despite not reaching the 218 thresholds normally required for a win, McCarthy still seized victory because of party members who withheld their votes for him but still voted “present.” This voter hold-out resulted in the typical 218-vote threshold being lowered, handing the victory over to McCarthy.

Many saw such a tight race as an indicator of the struggles to come for this new House, with many people raising concerns over potential gridlock going forward, as this new congress must tackle big issues. McCarthy’s first order of business will be passing the House Rules Package, detailing how the House will operate going forward. This vote is set to take place on January 9, 2023, and will set the stage for what we can expect in the future.