A house undecided and divided

The 2023 House Speakership vote took a total of four days spanning from Jan. 3 to Jan. 7 with a total of 15 ballots making this speakership election one of the longest in history. The House of Representatives have elected a speaker 128 times since the year 1789. In the House there are a total of 435 voting members, all of who are at least 25 years of age and have been a United States citizen for seven years minimum. Representatives serve two year terms where they serve in committees, along with writing and voting on laws.

The house is primarily composed of Republicans and Democrats, as the largest parties. Currently the Republican party is in control of the house as the majority of members. Each party elects a member that they want to see elected into speakership. All present members will vote for the candidate of their choice, and whichever candidate receives the majority of the vote becomes the new elected speaker. It is typical to see whichever party is in control of the house to have their candidate chosen. The role of speaker is an important role as they are responsible for presiding over the house and maintaining order. They manage proceedings, declaring votes, appointing members to committees, and sending bills to committees. The Speaker is third in line to the presidency, which displays the importance of the position.

With the Democrats losing the majority after the 2022 elections for congress, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi retired from leadership meaning it was time for new candidates to step up. With a new leadership controversy began to spark up and coming to a majority with the vote for speakership became a difficult task. Republicans and Democrats could not come to an agreement to get a majority vote, what seems to be a simple task that can typically be done in a matter of minutes took multiple days to finally come to a conclusion.

One of the largest concerns of not having a speaker is the fact that the remaining members of the House cannot be sworn in to duty until the leadership role is filled. For the beginning of 2023 the government had now members of congress as they were not able to be sworn in. This fact caused concern across the news as the legislative session, a very busy time of the year to write and pass laws, has not yet begun.

The main factor of why there was yet to be a final vote was due to Republicans not voting for their own party, and voting for opposing Candidate Hakeem Jefferies rather than their own Kevin McCarthy which sparked feelings of anger, annoyance, and betrayal. In order for one party‚representative to come out victorious numerous deals and solutions were suggested in committee, some even being put into place in order to convince the Republican party members who either didn't vote, or voted for the opposing party to vote for McCarthy to create the majority and end the vote.

"Those negotiations actually started back in Nov. of 2022. By the time we came in on Jan. 3 we had already changed the proposed rules a lot. There was only one item that changed during the speaker vote. It wasn’t as we were that far apart as the Republican conference, we had all come together and agreed on making significant changes, it was just a couple of minor things left," Congressman Loudermilk said.

The acknowledgement of the attempt to settle rising problems furthered the frustration behind the pacing of the elections. The disagreement created tension throughout the congress along with exhaustion as nights were spent in the chamber trying to conclude a vote. On the fifteenth ballot, after an agreement had been made between members and adjournment had been called off Representative McCarthy became the official Speaker of the House on Jan. 7. The rest of congress was sworn in that same day allowing the legislative session to officially begin.