The House and Senate will convene on Friday for the start of the new Congress, giving Donald Trump a Republican trifecta when he returns to Washington 17 days later. The House’s first order of business? Embarking on the semi-annual tradition of cat-herding that is the vote for speaker.
At the beginning of the 118th Congress, House Republicans went through 15 rounds of voting that almost came to blows before they finally nominated Kevin McCarthy in the early hours of January 7, 2023 — only for him to be ejected a little less than nine months later. That in turn led to more chaos in October that culminated in the nomination of Mike Johnson, the little-known but mild-mannered, devoutly religious and highly ideologically conservative back-bencher.
