Battle for the Speakership

Last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from his post as Speaker of the House. McCarthy became the first House Speaker in United States history to be vacated as Speaker. Not only that, McCarthy also became the shortest-serving Speaker since 1876 when Michael Kerr (D-IN) served as Speaker from December 6, 1875, until his death on August 19, 1876 from tuberculosis. Kerr was succeeded as Speaker by Samuel J. Randall (D-PA). Currently, Congressman Patrick McHenry is the acting Speaker. McCarthy has stated that he will not run for the Speakership again. 

For many weeks, Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been very vocal about vacating the Speakership if Kevin McCarthy refused to do what he originally promised back when he was vying for more votes. This all started back in January when McCarthy was in a major fight to become the Speaker of the House. With all the House Democrats voting for their newly minted House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jefferies (NY). McCarthy received the majority of the votes from the Republicans However, there was a small group of Republicans who opposed McCarthy becoming Speaker. They nominated representatives such as Jim Jordan, Byron Donalds, Kevin Hern, and even former President Donald Trump for Speaker.

Many Republicans have voiced their concern about removing Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY) has been very vocal on this. “Today’s vote to remove Speaker McCarthy was a disgrace and undermined the institution and the important work of our country,” And “That Matt Gaetz relied on House Dems to remove the Republican Speaker is an abomination. Good luck to future candidates for Speaker,” Lawler later wrote on X. 

So far there have been three candidates to throw their names for House Speaker to succeed Kevin McCarthy. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who Trump has endorsed. Trump also teased his interest in becoming House Speaker on social media. Trump would be eligible to become Speaker since the House Speaker does not necessarily have to be a voting member of Congress. Although the likelihood of that ever happening would be extremely unlikely. The other two candidates to express interest are House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin Hern (R-OK). Fox News announced that they planned on holding a debate for the next House Speaker, however, all three men declined to debate.

With the current state of affairs, there is very little our government can do to help our allies. On the morning of October 7th, Hamas attacked Israel again, one of the United States’ top global allies. Because there has yet to be a speaker to be named, the US can not offer any aid to Israel, which is a concern since Israel experienced their version of 9/11.

The timing of the speakership battle comes at a very bad time. The government still needs to be fully funded or the US will enter a government shutdown. The House Speaker needs to be chosen as soon as possible. That way we can fund our government and help our allies.