Lawmakers convened in a new era of divided government as Democrats relinquish control of the House after midterm election losses.
While the Senate remains in Democratic hands, barely, House Republicans are eager to confront President Joe Biden’s agenda after two years of a Democratic Party control of both houses of Congress.Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had gaveled closed the last session moments earlier, stepping aside for new Democratic leadership, to standing ovation from colleagues on her side of the aisle.But first, House Republicans had to elect a speaker, second in succession to the presidency.
A new generation of Trump-aligned Republicans led the opposition to McCarthy. They don’t think McCarthy is conservative enough or tough enough to battle Democrats. It’s reminiscent of the last time Republicans took back the House majority, after the 2010 midterms, when the tea-party class ushered in a new era of hardball politics, eventually sending Speaker John Boehner to an early retirement.Typically it takes a majority of the House’s 435 members, 218 votes, to become the speaker.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a leader a more pragmatic conservative group, said “frustration was rising” with the minority faction.Article content The second-ranking House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, would be an obvious next choice, a conservative widely liked by his colleagues and seen by some as a hero after surviving a gunshot wound suffered during a congressional baseball game practice in 2017.
Despite being in the minority in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority, McConnell could prove to be a viable partner as Biden seeks bipartisan victories in the new era of divided government. The two men were expected to appear together later in the week in the GOP leader’s home state of Kentucky to celebrate federal infrastructure investment in a vital bridge that connects Kentucky and Ohio.
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