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It’s the end of October and the US House of Representatives has not had a speaker for more than 20 days as the House Republican caucus finds themselves unable to come together to finish the job.
While the situation is dire, it is a good time for those who enjoy politics to follow the many moving parts.
This situation comes after the former speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), was ejected from the speaker’s chair by a small group of far-right Republicans who filed a motion to remove him after he worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. This situation has never happened before in the 236-year history since constitutional ratification.
Since McCarthy’s removal, many Republican congresspeople have been vying for the speaker’s gavel, especially since the forerunner, Jim Jordan (R-OH), left the race after his third vote.
Right now, nine candidates are in the running to get the House speaker nomination, none of whom are well-known. The senior-most candidate is Tom Emmer (R-MN), the House GOP Whip.
The US government is risking shutting down within less than 25 days, a concerningly short time considering that this crisis has already continued for at least 20 days.
How could this impact the 2024 election? The surprising contrast is between a GOP civil war and a Democratic party standing behind President Biden, who currently is dealing with several geopolitical crises, including those with Ukraine and Israel. This may give the Democrats a swift victory in 2024.
President Biden has also been waiting to get a new law passed that would give more military and humanitarian support to Israel and Ukraine, along with increasing funding for US-Mexico border security. These administrative goals have hit a roadblock notably because of the House Speaker crisis.
If this chaos continues and America has a drawn-out absence within the US House, the nation could see a prolonged government shutdown that makes the US unable to respond to global crises currently happening.
Since it looks unlikely Americans will see a new speaker elected for a while, this crisis will likely last for a couple more weeks, making a government shutdown even more likely.
As the chaos continues, anyone with family members who work for the federal government is either disheartened or stressed as the risks of another government shutdown become even more likely.
But those who follow politics have more than enough to keep themselves engaged and wondering.
Note: After this article was submitted for publication, the US House of Representatives elected Mike Johnson (R-LA) as its 56th Speaker.
