After a tumultuous several weeks of voting that saw a host of House Republicans vying for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives, the situation has settled back to the status quo. Prior to the voting, House Speaker John Boehner had announced his plans to resign from his position effective October 30, 2015, leaving the House Republicans to figure out who would fill the role in his wake.
In the end, after numerous rounds of voting and failed leadership bids, House Republicans chose Kevin McCarthy, the current majority leader, to fill Boehner’s role without chaos or disruption. The path to this decision was a chaotic, convoluted one, with many claiming that the House Republicans “were more divided … than [they] had ever been before.” It was a rocky few weeks, with members leaving the Republican party, attempting to vote for a speaker from beyond the grave, and voting for bizarre write-in candidates, but it all led back to the drawing board and the decision to keep Kevin McCarthy on as speaker despite the chaos. Questions still remain, however, about what will happen to the divided House Republicans and how much of the recent turmoil will color future decisions. For now, the elected speaker and the House can get back to the business of governing, though it’s safe to assume that the rifts caused by the recent leadership selection are not entirely healed.
