Speaker of The House Voting – Who will be the Next Speaker

Speaker of The House Voting – The Speaker of the House of Representatives election 2023 commenced on January 3, 2023. This will be the 128th U.S. election since the creation of the office in 1789.

The voting began to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

There have been six rounds of voting, but the Speaker of the House is yet to be elected.

This article provides information on the same, the candidates running for the House, and more.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started –

Speaker of The House Voting Bid

The Republicans won most of the House of Representatives in the 2022 elections. Republican Kevin McCarthy won the nomination within the Republican conference but was opposed by some House Republicans, including Republican Byron Donalds.

On the first ballot, 19 Republicans voted for candidates other than McCarthy, and no candidate came up with the necessary majority vote to get elected.

In the first round of the voting, Democratic Hakeem Jeffries of New York gained 212 votes, McCarthy of California gained 203 votes, and Andy Biggs of Arizona received 10 votes. Other non-nominated candidates received 9 votes.

On the second voting, McCarthy again did not gain the majority votes.

Hakeem Jeffries received the support of all Democrats in each of the first six rounds.

Jim Jordan of Ohio gained all votes of Republicans against McCarthy on the second and third rounds of speaker of the House voting. After three unsuccessful voting results on January 3, the House adjourned until noon the following day.

During the 4th voting round, Republican Chip Roy of Texas nominated Byron Donalds to replace Jordan as the Republican alternative to McCarthy. In the successive ballots, one of the members, Victoria Spartz, voted ‘present,’ resulting in the lowering of the threshold to 217 votes to be elected as the speaker of the House. The House adjourned until noon on January 5 after three additional unsuccessful speakers of the House ballots on January 4.

GOP leader Kevin McCarthy failed to receive the 217 required votes to win the speaker of the House election and suffered defeat in six rounds of voting.

Former President Mr. Donald Trump urged House Republicans to vote for McCarthy on Wednesday morning as McCarthy failed to get elected.

Several Republicans moved their support to other candidates, including Republican Byron Donalds, who received 20 votes in the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds of the voting.

With the Democrat Hakeem Jeffries receiving 212 votes, if adequate Republicans vote ‘present,’ he could be elected the future speaker of the House, despite the Democrats not holding the majority.

Speaker of the House voting 2023 is unique in that the next speaker does not require the candidates to be a member of Congress. So, other names can also be nominated for the position.

The other thing that makes the House election 2023 special is that it is the first election in 100 years proceeding with more than one ballot to elect the next speaker of the House after 1923.

The speaker will be elected based on the votes of the 434 members of the House of Representatives and 218 votes needed for a winning majority. Since Republicans hold 222 votes in the chamber, McCarthy is assured of winning the election in 2023. However, with no clear majority after six rounds of voting, the next speaker is still left to be anticipated.

Speaker of The House Candidates

The United States House of Representatives holds a speaker of the House election every two years to elect its speaker. Currently, the House is in the process of electing its next speaker of the House to replace former Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The candidates running to become the future speaker of the House are mentioned below –

Kevin McCarthy

McCarthy belonged to the Republican party and was the House Minority Leader in the House of Representatives between 2019-2023.

He has been serving as a House member since 2006. McCarthy is described as a rank-and-file centrist Republican before the 2016 election. He supported Donald Trump when the Republicans lost the House majority in 2019.

He failed to receive sufficient votes to get the majority to be elected as the Speaker. McCarthy did not have the support of the extremist right-wing members of the Republican Party.

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan has served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 4th congressional district since 2007. He belongs to the Republican party.

Matt Gaetz, a Florida Representative and one of the extremist Republicans, nominated Jim Jordan, referring to him as the best candidate for the speaker of the House but one who did not want it.

Hakeem Jeffries

Hakeem Jeffries is an attorney serving as the House Minority Leader and leader of the House Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives. He has also represented New York’s 8th congressional district since 2013.

Democrat Jeffries managed to get more votes than McCarthy despite having fewer members than the Republicans. All democrats seemed to be united to support him. He is the first black legislator to rule either of the U.S. Congress chambers.

Byron Donalds

Byron Donalds is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 19th congressional district since 2021. He belongs to the Republican party.

In the Speaker of The House voting, he supported Jordan rather than McCarthy. The following day, Donalds was nominated for Speaker three times and won all 20 holdouts’ votes every time.