by Claire Marcellini (’26) | November 17, 2023
In an unprecedented move in early October, the House of Representatives made a historic decision, voting to remove a Speaker of the House as Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a close tally of 216-210 votes in a campaign led by fellow Republican Representative Matt Gaetz. Gaetz made good on his promise to take “the gavel that took the country by storm.”
Kevin McCarthy hails from the San Joaquin Valley of California, and he currently represents the 20th Congressional District of California. His term as Speaker of the House began in January of this year and abruptly ended on October 3rd. After creating a bipartisan deal to keep the government funded for 45 days as the government shutdown went into effect, McCarthy lost the support of the Republican party.
However, he also garnered the attention of the Democrats. All Democrats and all but nine Republicans seated in the Senate approved the bill, passing it with 88 to 9 votes. After McCarthy stated that he would push the short-term funding bill through the House with Democratic aid, which put his speakership at risk, the plan passed 335-91. However, this triumph was one of the last straws for Matt Gaetz. Not only did Gaetz believe McCarthy was violating the interests of the Republican party, but McCarthy was in fact a part of the panel that appointed members to the Ethics Committee, which was currently investigating Gaetz for misconduct. During an investigation opened in April 2021, the House Ethics Committee reached out to witnesses about allegations against Gaetz of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery schemes. Although it was later deferred under a new chair, Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, the committee quietly restarted its examination earlier this year. These are all plausible cases for Gaetz’s censure of Kevin McCarthy.
Where does this debacle leave congressional leadership? For now, conservative Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana has been elected by his fellow Republicans to serve as the next Speaker of the House. The choices for the incoming Speaker were sparse for Republicans, and Mike Johnson was a final resort. Jim Jordan, a Representative in the House of Representatives, was rejected, and Tom Emmer, a spokesman for Minnesota, barely passed four hours as a speaker-designate. But where did the Republican party go wrong by appointing Mike Johnson as Speaker? Because of his extreme right views on nearly every decision that will put the party in a vulnerable state, he will be a “political albatross,” as MSNBC puts it. Whether the issue is focused on school shootings or the LGBTQ+ community, Johnson’s views are considerably far outside of the mainstream Republican ideas. Furthermore, Democrats have already utilized these stances to organize their voters. The representatives who voted for Johnson will be put in a vulnerable position, as they will have to defend their votes in his favor. Ironically, these same Republicans, who disapproved of Jim Jordan, will have to deal with the new Speaker’s recorded trail of imprudent comments and positions. It is hard to predict what will happen next, but at least the current situation has been relatively solved.
