Making sense of the chaos in the U.S. House chamber. After three votes, no one has the majority to become Speaker of the House, something that hasn’t happened in 100 years.
No Speaker of the House was elected after three ballots Tuesday, a historic moment. The Republican majority was unable to completely rally around Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California with 20 members voting for U.S. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio instead.
“It’s very emotional. A lot of hard feelings apparently, at least among the Republicans," said University of New Haven professor Mike Lawlor.
Lawlor says this is a bad sign for governance as no business can be done until a speaker is chosen. He says the House GOP appears to be in disarray in contrast to all 212 Democrats uniting behind New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries as minority leader.
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“If they are only relying on Republican votes, they have to worry about six or seven not being there for them,” he said.
This is the first time in 100 years no speaker was elected on the first ballot. In 1923, it took nine ballots and the record was 133 ballots in 1856.
Congressman Joe Courtney says the clock is ticking on getting business started.
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“We’ve got big decisions that still have to be made in the coming and the world gets a vote, too, because external events can happen and you want to make sure you’ve got a Congress that’s ready to respond,” Courtney said.
Another member says this should be a concerning development for anyone.
“The deal was not sealed before the lights came on and the cameras started rolling and that’s a very bad look, not only for the country but the world looks to us to govern responsibly,” Rep. Jim Himes said.
Other members of Connecticut’s delegation believe Republicans need to figure it out.
“Democrats stood firmly united behind Hakeem Jeffries each time across three rounds of voting, while Kevin McCarthy engendered neither the confidence nor the unity of his conference, and lost ground among Republicans,” Rep. John Larson said. “Not only do we not have a speaker, but sadly, what’s even worse is that we are not fully constituted as a Congress. By their numbers, Republicans have a majority, but not a working majority, because they remain at odds with one another due to their ideological differences.”
“It might be a late night tonight, but I am not making any predictions on the outcome,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro said. “This is up to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to figure out.”
Both Himes and Courtney say House Democrats still remain committed to voting for Jeffries.
House members will come back to the chambers Wednesday at noon and begin the fourth vote.
