Fifteen is the magic number for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
David Mark
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The process may not have been pretty. But a win’s a win.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) slogged it out through more than four days of balloting among lawmakers to claim the House speakership in the early hours of Saturday, Jan. 7. McCarthy, who first won his House seat in 2006, claimed the gavel on the 15th ballot — the most in a speaker’s election by House members since before the Civil War.
McCarthy, 57, took over as speaker from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the first woman to hold the role, and whose tenure in that position ended when the 117th Congress expired on Jan. 3 at 12 p.m. The position of House speaker is second in presidential succession, behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
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The intra-Republican turmoil was likely a preview of looming fights focused on rules, tactics, and logistics in a House that’s under narrow GOP control. While McCarthy, in his previous role as House minority leader, had once talked up Republican gains of dozens of seats, the 2022 midterm election didn’t turn out that way. Republicans did reclaim the majority two years into President Joe Biden’s White House term, but with 222 seats to 213 for the Democrats.
That’s the same slender margin by which the House Democrats held the majority over the past two years. And the GOP speaker vote suggests that in the majority, conservative lawmakers, particularly members of the House Freedom Caucus, are willing to use their leverage aggressively to extract concessions. After all, assuming all Democrats reject whatever bill McCarthy brings to the House floor as speaker, a defection of five Republicans means the legislation will lose.
And House Republicans weren’t shy about using this leverage in the run-up to (and during) the extended House speaker vote. The Republican from California finally triumphed once several defectors decided to vote “present” instead of casting their ballots against him, reducing the threshold needed to win.
After days of negotiations, McCarthy reached an agreement with most of his critics to allow a single member to force a vote to oust a sitting speaker; place more conservatives on coveted committees, including the powerful Rules Committee; cap discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels; establish a committee to investigate the “weaponization” of the federal government; require that a raise in the debt ceiling be paired with spending cuts; and ban McCarthy’s super PAC from interfering in open primaries.
McCarthy finally crashes the House Gaetz
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was a major protagonist in the GOP House speaker drama over three-and-a-half days. Gaetz has represented Florida’s Pensacola-area 1st Congressional District since 2017 and has been among the closest allies and staunchest defenders of former President Donald Trump. But Gaetz opposed McCarthy, even though the aspiring speaker had Trump’s backing. Gaetz, like other House conservatives, argued McCarthy was an ideological shapeshifter and political chameleon who wouldn’t hold the line against increased federal spending or defend other GOP principles.
Gaetz’s lingering opposition to McCarthy angered many fellow House Republicans, who backed McCarthy and stuck with him. On Friday night, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) nearly came to blows with Gaetz as long-simmering frustrations exploded. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) was seen physically restraining Rogers from barreling toward Gaetz after a heated exchange. Rogers is the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
But near the end of the 14th round of voting for House speaker Friday night, something happened with Gaetz. He voted “present” for the first time, opening the door to a McCarthy win on the next round of balloting.
Nevertheless, Gaetz suggested McCarthy would, due to House rules concessions, be a weaker speaker than his predecessors.
“He will have to live the entirety of his speakership in a straitjacket constructed by the rules that we’re working on now,” the Florida Republican said to the media. Gaetz, who had previously indicated he would never support McCarthy being speaker, later said about his “present” vote, “I ran out of things I could even imagine asking for.”
The episode marked the first time since 1923 that a speaker election had gone past the first ballot. And not since 1860, when it took 44 ballots to elect Rep. William Pennington (R-NJ) as a compromise candidate, had it taken 15 ballots to elect a speaker.
McCarthy ascended to the speaker’s rostrum at 1:13 a.m., clearly savoring holding the gavel for the first time.
“My father always told me: It’s not how you start — it’s how you finish. I hope one thing is clear after this week: I never give up,” the new speaker said.
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House Democrats were unimpressed.
“The 15th time’s the charm, apparently,” tweeted Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). “Americans deserve more than House Republicans’ inability to govern — and better than their proposed rule changes. Their agreement to weaken watchdogs, empower extremists, and tip the scales toward special interests betrays the American people.”