Key occasions
If the Home can’t elect a speaker on the primary poll this afternoon, then all enterprise of the chamber will grind to a halt till a pacesetter is chosen.
In October 2023, after Republican Kevin McCarthy was faraway from the speaker’s chair, it took weeks to elect his substitute, leaving the Home unable to think about any laws for many of the month.
The stakes of the speakership race will probably be even greater given the chamber’s essential enterprise this month. Home members can’t be formally sworn in for the brand new session of Congress till a speaker is chosen, and the chamber must certify the outcomes of the presidential election in simply three days.
Home to vote on new speaker immediately
Welcome to the brand new session of Congress, stay weblog readers.
In the present day at 12pm ET, the Home of Representatives will start the method of electing a brand new speaker, which might drag on for days if incumbent chief Mike Johnson can’t unify the Republican convention.
Johnson simply gained his convention’s speaker nomination in November, however Home Republicans’ slim majority and the latest, extremely contentious negotiations over a authorities funding bundle have imperiled his bid.
With former consultant Matt Gaetz’s seat remaining vacant for now, Republicans have 219 Home seats to Democrats’ 215. That implies that, assuming each Home member is in attendance and voting for a speaker candidate, Johnson can solely afford a single Republican defection and nonetheless maintain the gavel.
One Home Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has already indicated he is not going to assist Johnson on the primary poll immediately.
“You may pull all my fingernails out; you may shove bamboo up in them; you can begin slicing off my fingers,” Massie advised Gaetz, who’s now a number for One America Information, in an interview yesterday. “I’m not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow, and you may take that to the financial institution.”
Now the query turns into whether or not one different Republican will be a part of Massie. Given the handfuls of Republicans who stay outraged over Johnson’s try and move a bipartisan funding deal with Democratic assist final month, his victory is way from assured.
Though speakership races have traditionally been simple affairs with little drama concerned, that each one modified in 2023, when the speakership election of the brand new Congress stretched on for days. It took Kevin McCarthy, Republicans’ speaker nominee, 15 ballots to seize the gavel, and he was ousted from his publish simply 9 months later.
However Johnson has one main benefit heading into the vote: an endorsement from Donald Trump. The president-elect threw his assist behind Johnson on Monday, and he doubled down on the endorsement in a publish on Fact Social this morning.
“Good luck immediately for Speaker Mike Johnson, a effective man of nice capacity, who could be very near having 100% assist,” Trump stated. “A win for Mike immediately will probably be a giant win for the Republican Celebration.”
Will Trump’s endorsement be sufficient to get Johnson throughout the end line? The result stays unclear, so keep tuned.
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