Five long, exhausting, and frustrating days measure the amount of time it took to elect Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. Following this year’s shift from the House of Representatives becoming occupied by more Republicans than Democrats, Republican Kevin McCarthy received a chance to be elected as the new speaker on January 7th as a majority of Republican members were not going to re-elect former speaker, Nancy Pelosi. 

As the voting began for Kevin McCarthy, members of Congress were faced with a long endeavor. While Senator McCarthy had votes from most Republicans, he needed 218 votes to secure his win, yet struggled to achieve that number. This was mainly a result of several extreme right politicians including Lauren Boebert and Matt Gates, who were refusing to elect Senator McCarthy as speaker of the house. Problems proceeded to arise out of the lack of a speaker, including the inability to swear in new members of the House of Representatives. 

After a staggering 15 rounds of voting, Senator McCarthy was eventually elected as Speaker of the House after receiving a necessary vote from Gates.  According to a January 7th Vox article, McCarthy made agreements with the right that would give certain members a strong role in legislative processes. The persuasion of such extreme right Republicans may pose concerns as to further progress in Congress, yet Kevin McCarthy’s win has allowed for other government matters to proceed.