BOISE, Idaho — It is Jan. 4, 2023, after 5 p.m. MT, and there is still no speaker of the GOP controlled House in the United States Congress.
Dr. Charles Hunt, a political expert at Boise State University who focuses on the U.S. Congress, called the second day of voting "unprecedented in the modern era."
“As many folks have been saying already, this kind of thing hasn't happened in over in about 100 years,” Hunt said.
After six rounds of voting, three Tuesday and another three so far Wednesday, Republicans are stuck on a split that prevents California Rep. Kevin McCarthy from being elected as speaker. 20 Republicans refuse, instead voting for Representative Byron Donalds from Florida.
“Doesn't seem like it is destined to change anytime particularly soon," Hunt said. "You know, they're going to try and meet tonight and probably try to hammer something out, but these 20 or so folks seem as steadfast as they possibly could be about the fact that they are really not happy with Kevin McCarthy."
Idaho’s representatives in the House, Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson, both have voted for McCarthy in all rounds of voting so far. The group of 20 voting against McCarthy includes mostly members of the House Freedom Caucus voting bloc. Fulcher is in that freedom caucus, but his votes show a difference within that caucus.
“He even pointed that out in an interview yesterday, basically saying, look, you know, the Freedom Caucus is not united in this front against McCarthy, but he and Simpson have both sort of stood steadfast here," Hunt said. "For me, these members who have continued to vote against McCarthy, you know, they may have various reasons for doing so. Some of them may be thinking about the institution, some of them may be thinking about reelection and potential primaries. It doesn't seem like Simpson or Fulcher is particularly keyed in on that front. Maybe they feel they're fairly safe or have some institutional or ideological objections to the way this process is playing out or, as we should say, is not playing out."
Hunt said Idahoans can basically look at Idaho’s votes in the House as status quo. The lack of a Speaker of the House is a huge deal, one that prevents actual work from happening there.
“The speaker needs to be in place in order for House business to actually happen, and that includes swearing in these new members of Congress and re-swearing in the old members," Hunt said. "There's a lot of ways in which this is a preview of coming attractions. Right. We've got the debt ceiling fight, we've got, government spending, we've got all kinds of bills that are going to come up if we ever get sworn, if I ever get sworn in here. I don't see how, you know, this is just a procedural matter over who's the speaker, what's going to happen when we get to actual legislation."
For now, the American people can only wait and watch.
“These can go on for weeks, these can go on for months and for the sake of policymaking in this country, I hope that's not the case," Hunt said. "But, you know, this is a real question and a real issue that Republicans need to figure out before they want to accomplish anything with their new majority."
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