The Speakers of the 118th US House of Representatives (2023 to 2025): polarised Republicans make it difficult to hold office

from Alexander Kühne

DOI: 10.36206/BP2025.01

The Speaker of the House of Representatives plays a key role in the US political system; his decisions and leadership style have a far-reaching impact on national politics. However, conflicts within the Republican Party have damaged this office in recent years. In the 118th legislative period, for example, Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker to be voted out of office - overthrown by a small group of MPs from his own party. Significant differences within the Republican Party also made the election of his successor Mike Johnson more difficult. The events illustrate not only the dependence on Donald Trump, but also the increasing polarisation within the Republican faction
as well as the difficulty of finding viable cross-party and intra-party compromises and ensuring stable political leadership in the House of Representatives.

The most important facts in brief:
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives plays an extremely important role in the co-operation between the legislative and executive branches. Among other things, his office encompasses far-reaching procedural and (party) political tasks in the legislative process. However, disputes within a polarised Republican majority party have damaged the office of Speaker in the 118th legislative term (2023 to 2025):

1. Republican Kevin McCarthy was only elected to the third highest office in the USA on 7 January 2023 after 15 rounds of voting. He almost failed due to a lack of votes from his own ranks.
2. On 3 October 2023, McCarthy became the first speaker in the history of the United States to be voted out of office ("motion to vacate") - overthrown by a relatively small radical group of MPs from his own party.
3. The reason for the deselection was a cross-party compromise between McCarthy and the members of the Democratic Party. A far-reaching budget freeze ("shutdown") had been prevented by a transitional budget. However, Republicans led by MP Matt Gae tz rejected any compromise with the Democrats.
   Democrats demanded tough austerity measures and an end to aid to Ukraine in its current form.
4. Significant differences within the Republican faction also made the election of McCarthy's successor more difficult. The first three candidates failed to gain the necessary support for various reasons. It was not until the fourth candidate, Mike Johnson, won the majority of votes on 25 October 2023 that he was elected 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives.