November 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election

The **November 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election** was an election for the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, called after the vacating of the chair and subsequent removal of Jim Clyburn. After seven failed nominees, Democrats successfully nominated Bill Nelson, a former United States Senator from Florida, as Speaker of the House. Nelson is the first ever Speaker who is not a sitting U.S. Representative.

## First ballot

**First ballot**

Democrats nominated Majority Leader Robin Kelly of Illinois for Speaker, while Republicans nominated Minority Leader Patrick McHenry.

Conservative Democrats rebelled against Kelly's nomination, opposing the more progressive parts of the Democratic platform. Seven Democrats voted for another candidate, denying Kelly the majority.

Democrats met and reconfirmed Kelly as the nominee for the second ballot. McHenry called a press conference attacking the Democrats for being disorganised, while Minority Whip Tom Emmer called for the conservative defectors to vote McHenry for Speaker.

## Second Ballot

**Second ballot**

On the Second ballot, Kelly lost by a larger margin to McHenry, prompting her to step down as nominee.

## Third Ballot

**Third ballot**

On the third ballot, Conservative Democrats convinced the party to nominate Henry Cuellar. However, the Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed Kelly, causing 23 defections. Cuellar was removed as the nominee and the House adjourned.

## Fourth Ballot

**Fourth ballot**

Pete Aguilar of California became the nominee on the fourth ballot. Aguilar failed to win over the conservative holdouts, and was denied a majority. U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Pramila Jaypal, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Jamaal Bowman, Adriano Espaillat and Rashida Tlaib released a joint statement calling for holdouts to be removed from their committee assignments. Republicans retaliated by saying any Democratic holdouts who were removed from their committee assignments for voting for McHenry would have their assignments returned to them by the Republicans.

## Fifth Ballot

**Fifth ballot**

On the fifth ballot, Democrats Jared Golden and Mary Peltola voted for McHenry and were subsequently stripped of their committee assignments. Aguilar, however, stepped down, claiming he could not unite the caucus.

## Sixth Ballot

**Sixth ballot**

Josh Gottheimer, who introduced the original motion to vacate, switched his vote to McHenry, claiming no other candidate was 'devoted to defending Israel'. Clark stepped down as the nominee after the vote, endorsing Hakeem Jeffries, who did not enter the race.

## Seventh Ballot

**Seventh ballot**
 Home district | Michigan's 8th
 Vote | 210

Democrats nominated Dan Kildee for Speaker on the seventh ballot. Conservative Democrats nominated Josh Gottheimer, who intended to steer votes away from the Democratic nominee until Cuellar was returned as the nominee. Kildee lost, and requested the House adjourn. Speaker pro tempore Cedric Richmond of Louisiana was mentioned as a potential replacement for Kildee on the eighth ballot.

Kildee called upon the Democratic caucus to unite around a single nominee on the eighth ballot, refusing to step down. A move to remove Kildee failed.

## Eighth Ballot

On the eighth ballot, McHenry promised Gottheimer prestigious committee assignments if he dropped out and endorsed him. However, Gottheimer refused. Former Speaker Pete Sessions refused to vote for McHenry this round, voting present.

This lead to rumors that Sessions would challenge McHenry for the Republican nomination, which were confirmed true as Sessions called on the Republican conference to name Sessions their Speaker nominee and retain McHenry as Minority Leader. He was defeated in the secret balloting.

## Ninth ballot

**Ninth ballot**
 Home district | Michigan's 8th
 Vote | 210

The ninth ballot was a repeat of the seventh. The Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed Hakeem Jeffries, calling on Jeffries to challenge Kildee. Jeffries refused, and the caucus agreed to continue supporting Kildee. Sessions released an endorsement of McHenry, claiming that McHenry "would make a fine speaker".

## Tenth ballot

**Tenth ballot**
 Home district | Michigan's 8th
 Vote | 209

On the tenth ballot, another Democrat defected from Kildee. Kildee announced in a press conference he was stepping down as the nominee. Speaker pro tempore Cedric Richmond went against Kildee's wishes and said that Congress should not be adjourned. A vote to adjourn failed. Richmond refused to run for the nomination himself, and a series of junior Representatives decided to run for the nomination, and while Colin Allred won, Representative AOC won the endorsement of House Progressive Caucus members.

## Eleventh ballot

Colin Allred's loss on the eleventh ballot lead to his withdrawal. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who was long seen as the only unifying candidate, finally announced his campaign. AOC withdrew from the balloting and endorsed Jeffries. Jeffries promised to restore any committee assignments lost after breaking from the Democratic nominee if the candidate would vote for Jeffries.

## Twelfth ballot

**Twelfth ballot**
 Home district | New York's 8th
 Vote | 215

On the twelfth ballot, Jeffries managed to win back multiple Gottheimer holdouts. However, Jeffries fell three votes short of a majority. McHenry called upon Democrats to 'open their ears to their conservative members' concerns', stating that their offer on committee assignments was still on the table.

## Thirteenth ballot

**Thirteenth ballot**
 Home district | New York's 8th
 Vote | 215

Jeffries called for rapid balloting. However, many deals failed to come through as conservative Democrats continued to hold out.

## Fourteenth ballot

**Fourteenth ballot**
 Home district | New York's 8th
 Vote | 215

After the fourteenth ballot, Jeffries and Richmond agreed to hold a vote to adjourn the House for the day. However, McHenry and Gottheimer teamed up to prevent the adjourning of Congress, thus subjecting the Democrats to late night balloting. An anonymous Republican representative later leaked to the press that the plan was to tire Democrats of Jeffries, causing him to drop him as their nominee in favor of someone weaker.

## Fifteenth ballot

**Fifteenth ballot**
 Home district | New York's 8th
 Vote | 214

After balloting, another motion to adjourn failed. McHenry announced he would hold no further press conferences that day. Gottheimer launched a challenge to Jeffries after balloting for the party nomination, but lost decisively by a 209-13 vote.

## Sixteenth ballot

**Sixteenth ballot**
 Home district | New York's 8th
 Vote | 212

As the next day began, Jeffries announced he would be interested in forming a commission between the Democratic leadership, himself, Gottheimer, Golden and Peltola to agree on a unifying nominee. Gottheimer agreed, despite McHenry's objections, and the House was adjourned. After this, McHenry said he would withdraw as the speaker nominee, backing former Speaker Pete Sessions, who won the nomination to return.

## Seventeenth ballot

**Seventeenth ballot**

In a race described as 'bizarre', former United States Senator from Florida Bill Nelson, who had been a U.S. Representative from 1979 until 1991, became the Democratic nominee, defeating former House Speaker Pete Sessions for the role of Speaker.

Nelson was picked as a compromise candidate. Being 81 and not holding a House Seat, Nelson was perfect for a caretaker role as Speaker. The Democratic Caucus agreed to expand Robin Kelly's powers as Majority Leader to allow Nelson to run the chamber. Arkansas Representative Bruce Westerman refused to vote for Sessions, and voted for Dennis Hastert, a former long-time Illinois congressman who had been imprisoned for child molestation.