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2025 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election

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2025 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election
← October 2023 January 3, 2025 2027 →
Needed to win: Majority of the votes cast
 
Candidate Mike Johnson Hakeem Jeffries
Party Republican Democratic
Leader's seat Louisiana 4th New York 8th
Incumbent Speaker

Mike Johnson
Republican



The 2025 speaker of the United States House of Representatives election will take place on January 3, 2025, on the opening day of the 119th United States Congress, two months after the 2024 elections for the United States House of Representatives. This will be the 130th speaker of the House of Representatives election since the office was created in 1789.

Process and conventions

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The speaker is the presiding officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. The House elects its speaker at the beginning of a new Congress (i.e. biennially, after Election Day) or when a speaker dies, resigns, or is removed from the position intra-term. Since 1839, the House has elected speakers by roll call vote.[1] Following a congressional election and the adjournment of the prior congress, there being no speaker, the House clerk summons, convenes, and calls the House to order. After prayer offered by the House chaplain, the clerk leads the representatives in the Pledge of Allegiance before ordering a roll call conducted by the reading clerk. The clerk and its officers then order and oversee the election of a speaker. During these processes, the clerk must "preserve order and decorum and decide all questions of order", which is subject to appeal to the body.[2]

Traditionally, each of the party caucuses and conferences selects a candidate for the speakership from among its senior leaders prior to the roll call. Representatives are not restricted to voting for the candidate nominated by their party but generally do, as the outcome of the election effectively determines which one is the majority party and consequently will organize the House.[3] Without a speaker, members-elect of the House cannot be sworn in.[a] The House is unable to conduct any business other than electing the speaker.[4][5] Because the rules of the House are adopted for each new Congress, the House will not have rules until the election is complete allowing the members to be sworn in and the House to adopt rules.[6]

Representatives that choose to vote for someone other than their party's nominated candidate usually vote for another member within the party or vote present, which entails abstention. Moreover, as the Constitution does not explicitly state that the speaker must be an incumbent member of the House, it is permissible for representatives to nominate and vote for someone who is not a member of the House at the time, and non-members have been nominated and received a few votes in various speaker elections over the past several years.[7] Nevertheless, every person elected speaker has been a member.[3] Upon winning election, the new speaker is immediately sworn in by the House dean, the chamber's longest-serving member.[8][9] The new speaker then administers the oath en masse to the rest of the members of the House.[10]

To be elected speaker, a candidate must receive a majority of the current votes cast, as opposed to a majority of the entire membership of the House. There have only been a few instances during the past century where a person received a majority of the votes cast and thus won the election while failing to obtain a majority of the full membership. It had happened most recently in 2023, when Kevin McCarthy was elected with 216 votes (as opposed to 218). Such a variation in the number of votes necessary to win a given election might arise due to vacancies, absentees, or members being present but not voting. If no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast for a person by name, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected.

Republican nomination

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Republicans retained their slim majority in the House of Representatives, despite losing a seat, during the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections.[11] With a two seat larger majority, in the January 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, a far-right faction of the Republican majority, mostly represented by the Freedom Caucus, refused to support Republican speaker nominee Kevin McCarthy without concessions. McCarthy eventually was elected speaker, after four days of voting and 15 ballots, after naming far-right Republicans to the powerful United States House Committee on Rules and reducing the threshold to one member to force a vote to remove the Speaker through a motion to vacate the chair.[12] Despite these concessions, McCarthy was removed as Speaker by far-right Republicans and all Democrats on October 3, 2023 after he worked to pass a clean continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown. Mike Johnson was elected speaker, after four ballots, on October 25, 2023. Far-right Republicans blocked the nominations of Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer as speaker, while more moderate Republicans blocked the nomination of Jim Jordan. In May 2024, after Johnson passed military aid for Ukraine, far-right Republicans attempted to remove Johnson from the speakership. However, this attempt was blocked by a majority of both Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans voted to nominate their speaker of the House candidate on Wednesday, November 13.[13] On November 12, Politico reported that members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus planned to force an internal secret ballot vote on the speakership of Mike Johnson. Their opposition to Johnson was mostly meant as a way to protest against some proposed rule changes (due to be voted on by the Conference) which would revoke Conference assignments from Republicans who break party lines on procedural votes or introduce a motion to vacate.[14]

Prior to the vote, members of the Freedom Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, along with speaker Mike Johnson, reached an agreement: the proposed rule changes on Conference assignments would be withdrawn; in exchange, the holdouts pledged to support a reform of the motion to vacate, which would raise the threshold to introduce it from one member to nine members.

After the deal was struck, Johnson was nominated by voice vote without opposition.[15]

Following speaker Johnson's December 17 announcement of a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown, which included funding opposed by many conservative Republicans, Republican representative Thomas Massie said he would vote against Johnson in the upcoming speakership election. Politico and Punchbowl News reported that privately several other Republicans were "uncommitted" to supporting Johnson.[16][17] Later, Republican senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, as well as Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, publicly announced that they are open to supporting Elon Musk to be the next Speaker of the House.[18][19] On December 20, Freedom Caucus chair Andy Harris said he was "undecided."[20] On December 30, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump endorsed Johnson through a post on Truth Social.[21][22]

Nominee

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Democratic nomination

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Incumbent House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries was re-elected as Leader of the House Democratic Caucus by acclamation without opposition on November 19, 2024.[23]

Nominee

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Election of the speaker

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2025 election for Speaker
Party Candidate District 1st ballot
Votes %
Republican Mike Johnson LA 4
Democratic Hakeem Jeffries NY 8
Other candidates
Total votes
Absent —
Vacant —
Votes needed to win TBD >50%

Notes

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  1. ^ The Twentieth Amendment states that all members' terms begin at noon on January 3. Until officially sworn-in, members are referred to as members-elect.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Forte, David F. (October 19, 2010). "Essays on Article I: Speaker of the House". Heritage Guide to The Constitution. The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  2. ^ "The First Day of a New Congress: A Guide to Proceedings on the House Floor, rev. Dec. 19, 2018" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. December 19, 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Heitshusen, Valerie; Beth, Richard S. (January 4, 2019). "Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913–2019" (PDF). CRS Report for Congress. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  4. ^ 2 U.S.C. § 25
  5. ^ Jalonick, Mary Clare (January 5, 2023). "US House has no members, no rules as speaker race drags on". Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
  6. ^ Forrest, Jack; et al. (January 4, 2023). "The lack of a new speaker has ground House business to a halt". CNN. Archived from the original on January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
  7. ^ Grier, Peter (September 25, 2015). "John Boehner exit: Anyone can run for House speaker, even you". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on November 25, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  8. ^ "Election of the Speaker Overview". Laws.com. October 28, 2011. Archived from the original on August 27, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  9. ^ "Fathers/Deans of the House". United States House of Representatives. November 9, 2016. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  10. ^ "Oath of Office". US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. January 3, 2013. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  11. ^ Bowman, Birdget; Wong, Scott (December 4, 2024). "Democrats flip final House seat of the 2024 elections, narrowing Republicans' majority". NBC News. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  12. ^ Zurcher, Anthony (January 7, 2023). "What has Kevin McCarthy given up, and at what price?". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 7, 2023. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Beavers, Olivia; Carney, Jordain (November 9, 2024). "Conservatives weigh potential show of opposition against Johnson". Politico. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  14. ^ Carney, Jordain (November 12, 2024). "Freedom Caucus backs off plan to push a challenger to Johnson". Politico. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  15. ^ Brooks, Emily; Schnell, Michael (November 13, 2024). "House Republicans strike deal to make it harder to oust Speaker". The Hill. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  16. ^ Bade, Rachael; Olivia, Beavers; Carney, Jordain (December 18, 2024). "Johnson weighs spending plan B as Elon Musk stokes opposition". Politico. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  17. ^ Sherman, Jake; Bresnahan, John; Zanona, Melanie; Soellner, Mica (December 18, 2024). "Trump nukes Mike Johnson". Punchbowl News. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  18. ^ Adragna, Anthony (December 19, 2024). "Rand Paul floats Musk for speaker". Politico. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  19. ^ Stef W. Kight (December 19, 2024). "Rand Paul floats Elon Musk for House Speaker". Axios. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  20. ^ Solender, Andrew (December 21, 2024). "Mike Johnson's GOP rebels want their own Nancy Pelosi". Axios. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
  21. ^ Sotomayor, Marianna; Kornfield, Maryl; Alfaro, Mariana (December 30, 2024). "Trump endorses Mike Johnson for reelection as House speaker ahead of perilous vote". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  22. ^ Haberman, Maggie; Swan, Jonathan (December 30, 2024). "Trump Endorses Mike Johnson to Continue as House Speaker". The New York Times. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  23. ^ Wu, Nicholas (November 19, 2024). "Hakeem Jeffries was reelected as House Democratic leader by acclamation on Tuesday morning". Politico. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  24. ^ "Hakeem Jeffries wins reelection as House Democratic leader despite party's losses". AP News. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
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