The Basics

The first thing the US House must do when first convening (even before swearing in new representatives) is elect a Speaker of the House. In order to be named Speaker a nominee needs a majority vote from all members voting. For now, our magic majority number is 218.

Following the recent House elections: Republicans have 222 House representatives. Democrats have 212 representatives. Republicans can pick the Speaker on their own since they have the votes within their party to do so.

The previous House Minority Leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy was expected to be the leading Speaker candidate but he has failed to receive 218 votes after six ballots (at time of writing, 5PM ET 1/4/23). Instead, Democrat House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has received the most votes on each of the six ballots with all 212 Democrats in raucous support.

The House has adjourned and will reconvene TONIGHT, January 4th at 8pm ET.

The Holdouts

The following 20 House Republicans did not vote for either Kevin McCarthy or Hakeem Jeffries in recent ballots, causing a stalemate:

Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Dan Bishop (NC-08), Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Josh Brecheen* (OK-02), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Andrew Clyde (GA-09), Eli Crane* (AZ-02), Byron Donalds (FL-19), Matt Gaetz (FL-01), Bob Good (VA-05), Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Andy Harris (MD-01), Anna Paulina Luna* (FL-13), Mary Miller (IL-15), Andrew Ogles* (TN-05), Scott Perry (PA-10), Matthew Rosendale (MT-02), Chip Roy (TX-21), Keith Self* (TX-03)

All of the above names in italics are current members of the House Freedom Caucus. Names with an asterisk* are newly elected freshmen that received money from or were endorsed by the House Freedom Fund. You see a trend? By the third ballot they coalesced around Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04), the founding Chair of the Freedom Caucus in 2015. (In ballots four through six, the 20-strong block threw their collective support behind Florida’s Byron Donalds after Jim Jordan continued to support McCarthy.)

So What Now?

Nothing can happen in the US House until a Speaker is chosen. As of now they'll reconvene at 8pm Eastern (Jan 4) to vote again. Like I mentioned above, the Speaker voting drama has delayed the swearing in of new House members (they cast their votes for Speaker as 'representatives-elect'.) All House business will continue to be delayed until this matter is settled. For the record, the longest vote for Speaker of the House lasted for two months during the winter of 1856-57. 😬