Republican Kevin McCarthy from Bakersfield, California was elected to become the 54th Speaker of the House on Jan. 6, 2023.  

   The Speaker of the House has quite a significant role. Being Speaker of the House puts McCarthy second in line for president. The Speaker of the house also acts as the administrative head of the house.  

  Needing the majority of the House to vote for him, McCarthy won the election by just a few votes. After 15 tries, McCarthy was able to secure the position, beating Democrat minority leader Hakeem Jefferies of New York 216 to 212 votes. To get the needed votes, McCarthy had to convince many republican representatives to vote for him. Some of these figures include Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Michael Cloud of Texas, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Mary Miller of Illinois, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Andy Ogles of Tennessee. This election was the longest speaker vote in 168 years and was the 5th longest speaker vote in history. 

   McCarthy has always desired to become the Speaker of the House. He started out as the minority leader of the California Assembly in Sacramento. He did this before being elected to the house in 2006. After his election to the House, he rose through the ranks of the Republican party, becoming the chief deputy and then majority leader and now GOP leader. After his election, McCarthy recited one of his families’ favorite sayings, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And now we need to finish strong for the American people.” 

   When asked about his plans, McCarthy said that his first order of business was to have Congress repeal the bill that gives funding for 87,000 new IRS agents. He also announced that he planned to reopen the Capitol Complex, which has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

   In order to get members of his party to vote for him, he promised certain things like mandating 72 hours between the posting and voting on bills and giving members more time to think about bills. Also, he wants to create a constitutional amendment that would create a term limit on members of the House and Senate. In addition, McCarthy would like to reintroduce the Holman rule, which can be used to cap the salaries of government officials.