US House Speaker race

by logopolys_

I'm not up on House rules and procedures, so a series of questions occurred to me given the current events in congress.

  • Can the minority part in the house nominate a candidate?
  • If the minority can nominate a candidate, could they nominate a moderate member of the majority, and conceivably pull enough votes from the majority to beat their official candidate?
  • If this is possible, has it ever happened?
Georgy_K_Zhukov

While there is an historical element here, you should consider posting to /r/Ask_Politics.

4d2

Both parties will nominate their own candidates and they will be voted on by the entire House to decide. The minority party almost always nominates the minority leader.

Usually the party nominee of the majority wins because the requirement is a simple majority vote.

If you look into past elections you will find a number of 1 or 2 vote candidates. Any member of the House can nominate their own candidate by ballot. A caucus will sometimes nominate their own candidate which may garner a dozen votes.

The candidate does not even need to be a member of the House to get the job but I'm not aware of any instances in the modern era, even in the 1800's, where a non member got any volume of votes or a minority member won the Speakership.