Former Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who served as Speaker since January 7th, 2023, was ousted as Speaker of the House on October 3rd, 2023. This marked the first time in United States history when a speaker was successfully fired. While previous votes have been held, none had been successful until McCarthy.
As a Republican, McCarthy was never viewed highly by the Democratic party. Regardless, being the minority party they never had enough votes to oust McCarthy, until he had to strike a deal with them.
The government was set to shut down in late September as the house could not vote together to pass any funding bills. This led McCarthy to make a deal with a few members of the minority party, going around his own party to get enough votes to pass a 45-day stopgap funding bill.
In an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, McCarthy said, “Well, well I wasn’t sure it was gonna pass. You want to know why? Because the Democrats tried to do everything they could, not to let it pass.” Regardless, McCarthy got the vote and prevented the shutdown temporarily but angered members of his party, enough to where they came for his job.
In a narrow vote of 216 to 210, McCarthy was ousted as speaker, and in came interim speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. As speaker McCarthy was allowed to choose an interim if anything were to happen, McHenry served as the interim from October 4th to October 25th.
When asked on how McHenry felt serving as the interim speaker he stated “The situation we’re in,” McHenry remembered. “What just happened to my friend. What that meant for what we could get done. I’m here to get policy enacted into law. That’s what I’m focused on.” (Per Charlotte Observer)
As of October 26th, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana became the new Speaker of the House, winning in a 220-209 vote over Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York. While McCarthy could have run once again, he declined, leaving the House in new hands. In Johnson’s hands, a new funding bill has finally passed by the House, sending the bill to the Senate next. The bill would fund the government through early 2024 where a new bill will need to pass once more. The final tally was 336 in favor and 95 opposed, with 127 Republicans joining 209 Democrats to pass the bill. (per CNBC)
Written by Isaac Ramos, Staff Writer