WASHINGTON DC (WTAQ-WLUK) – After a few days and 15 rounds of votes, lawmakers finally elected a house speaker.
Republican Kevin McCarthy won the vote early Saturday morning in Washington D.C.
He won with 216 votes, to Democrat Hakeem Jeffries’s 212 votes.
After a historic election, U.S. lawmakers say they’re glad a decision on house speaker has been made.
“I feel good…I think I have a good relationship with Kevin McCarthy,” says Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-6th District.
Grothman says he feels the length of the election did not represent the Republican Party in a bad way.
“I mean look we’re done, we are going to be voting on bills by the end of next week…working together for such a long period of time strengthens things, you get to know your colleagues a little bit better,” says Grothman.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-8th District, shared a statement with FOX 11, and is also eager to begin working with McCarthy.
Gallagher says: “The American people elected a House Republican majority to combat the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, restore fiscal sanity, and inject common sense into the legislative process. Now that Kevin McCarthy has officially become Speaker McCarthy, we can finally get to work and implement these commitments to the country. While this process may have been messy, there was something quintessentially American about what happened on the House floor this week. For the first time in years, members weren’t going to fundraisers or lunches with lobbyists – they were on the House floor, engaging with each other, and debating the foundation for the next two years of this Congress. The institution would be better served if more legislation involved the same energy we’ve seen over the past few days. Now the hard work begins. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to serve Northeast Wisconsin in the 118th Congress and look forward to finding common sense solutions to the challenges our country faces.”
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin also shared a statement with FOX 11.
It says: “As Kevin McCarthy’s desperate wheeling and dealing unleashed chaos on Capitol Hill this week, Congressman Gallagher stood by and watched it happen. McCarthy’s bargain with far-right, radical House Republicans makes it more likely we could see a government shutdown and a default on our debt, to say nothing of sky-high prescription drug prices, further GOP attacks on our health care, and a national abortion ban. Wisconsinites deserve better than Congressman Gallagher and Kevin McCarthy’s radical agenda for America.”
“Probably the most important rule that the conference operates under is that everybody is supposed to vote for somebody who is taking a private speakers vote a week earlier, so when we had 21 people break the golden rule, that doesn’t happen a lot,” says Grothman.
Rep. Gwen Moore, D-4th District also provided FOX 11 with a statement saying: “I voted 15 times against Kevin McCarthy, but he is my Speaker. I am very eager to see what he does to protect the rights and privileges of all members of Congress.”
Now that everyone has been sworn in, both sides say they’re ready to get to work.
