The 118th Congress convened in Washington, D.C. yesterday and, for the first time in a hundred years, the House failed to elect a Speaker on the first ballot.
It is, in one way, a testament to the strength of the American two-party system that it has taken this long for the problem to arise. The last Congress was also narrowly divided, but Democrat Nancy Pelosi managed to hold the votes of all but two members of her caucus, eking out a narrow win. Many assumed that the same would be true this time as the Republican majority swept in, and that opposition to the presumptive Speaker, California’s Kevin McCarthy, would fade away just as far-Left opposition to Pelosi did in 2021.
Three rounds of voting later and we see that this is not the case. With 222 Republicans elected and 218 votes needed for a majority, McCarthy had a very small margin for error. On the first ballot, 19 members defected, voting for various other Republicans they deemed more acceptable — and more conservative — than McCarthy.
If anyone thought this was a mere protest vote, the second ballot dispelled the notion: the same 19 refused to vote for McCarthy, this time coalescing around Ohio Republican Jim Jordan as their pick. Jordan, for his part, did not join the defectors and gave a speech nominating McCarthy. A third ballot was taken, and the number of anti-McCarthy voters rose to 20 as Florida’s Byron Donalds joined the group.
The House adjourned after that, with no Speaker and no possibility of conducting any other business.
How long the revolt lasts will depend on the nature of the 20 defectors’ motivations. Much of what goes on in the American Congress — especially from members on the far-Right and far-Left — is symbolic and performative. As the legislature has shed its responsibilities over the years in favour of the courts and the executive branch, much of the “business” of Congress has been giving speeches to an empty chamber, not writing laws or debating them.
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