Kevin McCarthy, a member of the Republican party is struggling to secure the position of speaker of the House of Representatives as his party members are refusing to support him. The election for the position of the speaker at the House of Representatives 2023 is set to happen on Tuesday where Kevin McCarthy from the Republicans and Hakeem Jeffries from the Democrats are set to face each other. Currently, the Republican party holds the majority in the House, which means that Kevin McCarthy is supposed to win the position easily. But according to the latest developments, many republicans have refused to support McCarthy in his desire to become the speaker of the House of Representatives. This is extremely crucial for McCarty, mainly because the Republicans just have a minor lead over the Democratic party. Hence, McCarthy needs all the support he can procure while entering into elections.
During the midterm elections, the Republicans won the House of Representatives election as they acquired 222 seats in the election. The Democrats managed to acquire 213 seats which are five seats lower than the required number of seats to have a majority. Because of this, McCarthy’s desire to become the speaker of the House of Representatives, one of the most important positions in US politics, requires support from almost all the Republicans which are the members of the House of Representatives. McCarthy's failure to win such a crucial position in the House of Representatives will mean that Republicans have lost even after securing a majority in the House. The speaker of the House of Representatives has the legal power to decide the members of any committee that the House forms, the timetable of the house, and the legislative agenda for the House. The Biden administration is already trying its best to have control of the House, mainly to have control over the legislative agenda. Republicans have been accusing President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden of practicing shady business. Because of this, one of the major points of Republicans while entering the House of Representatives elections was to start an investigation against President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
After winning the midterm elections for the House, out of 222 Republicans, 188 members of the party supported McCarthy to become the speaker of the House of Representatives, which is set to hold its first meeting on January 3. Because of it, McCarthy has been trying to win more support to have a majority of House members backing him as the speaker. Based on the current situation, McCarthy is being backed by 188 Republicans out of a total of 222 Republicans who won during the midterm elections. To have a majority in the house, 218 votes are required, which means that McCarthy can only afford to lose 4 votes from the Republican side if wants to have the majority votes for becoming the speaker. If he wins the election which is being held on Tuesday, he will replace the current speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi who belongs to the Democratic party.
