There Is No Speaker of the House. Again.

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Rep. Mike Johnson (R–La.) who has served as speaker of the House | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

Here we go again.

Members of the House of Representatives failed to elect a speaker on Friday afternoon, as a handful of Republicans refused to back Rep. Mike Johnson (R–La.) in his bid to return to the top post in the chamber. Another round of voting—and potentially many more—will be required, and the House is unable to conduct other business until a speaker has been elected by a majority of the members.

With 434 members seated on Friday as the new session began—Matt Gaetz, who was reelected to his Florida seat won’t serve the term—any potential speaker needed 218 votes to seize the gavel. Johnson got 216, while Rep. Hakeem Jefferies (D–N.Y.) got 215.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) voted for Rep. Tom Emmer (R–Minn.), Rep. Ralph Norman (R–S.C.) voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), and Rep. Keith Self (R–Texas) voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R–Fla.), all apparently as protest votes. None of those members had been nominated for the speakership prior to the floor vote.

Still, those votes were more than enough to deny victory to Johnson, who could afford to lose only two Republican votes due to the razor-thin majority that the GOP holds in the chamber.

Following the first vote, the House moved immediately to restart the election process. Another vote is expected later on Friday.

Some of Johnson’s Republican critics circulated a letter in the hours before the speakership vote urging their colleagues to reject his reelection bid. The letter called attention to debt and spending issues, as well as Johnson’s support for military aid to Ukraine and his willingness to court Democratic votes to pass various spending bills.

Johnson took an unlikely path to becoming speaker in the aftermath of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented ousting from the post. Now, the chaotic wheel that is the House Republican conference has spun, and he’s in danger of being toppled himself. The next few hours, or days, will decide.

 

The post There Is No Speaker of the House. Again. appeared first on Reason.com.

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