Assuming a 220-215 GOP House majority, as NBC News has projected, it would take only 3 GOP votes to elect Justin Amash as speaker if Democrats cooperated.
And on Friday, November 18, 2022, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado endorsed Amash, which could bring along other Democrats (read story here).
Amash, a GOP representative from Michigan who switched to the Libertarian Party and chose not to run for reelection in 2020, is lobbying for the job. He’s not a current member of Congress, but doesn’t have to be.
“I’d be happy to serve as a nonpartisan speaker who ensures the institution works as it’s supposed to—a place where all ideas are welcome and where outcomes are discovered through the process, not dictated from above,” he says.
He needs three things: A GOP deadlock, Democratic support, and a tiny handful of Republican backers.
A GOP deadlock may happen. The Republicans have a majority, but they’re splintered, and 31 of them voted against nominating Kevin McCarthy, the leading GOP candidate. Because a speaker is elected by the entire House, he needs 218 votes, and is unelectable if just 3 Republicans refuse to vote for him; and several vow to do just that.
They would never choose Amash; even though he once was one of them, he voted to impeach Trump, a poison pill if there ever was one. But he only needs the votes of 3 Republican moderates, if he can get all the Democrats on his side. That shouldn’t be too tough. They’d much rather he run the show than McCarthy or a worse GOP firebrand.
I like the idea, and I think the Democrats will, too. While all but 1 of the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment are gone from Congress, if Amash can get that one (Dan Newhouse of Washington), he needs only 2 more, and I suspect he could find them if the Republicans are unable to elect anyone because of their infighting, which is getting vicious.
Maybe not, though; GOP House leaders almost certainly would threaten any members of their caucus who left the reservation, so to speak, with the punishments of the damned — pushing a rock up the parking garage stairs, or something of that nature.
Still, there may be a couple GOP congressmen who don’t depend on their party or Trump voters for political survival. And they wouldn’t be voting for a Democrat.
I don’t really believe it’ll happen, but it might, and would go a long way to lower the political temperature in Washington D.C.
Related story: A former GOP congressional staffer proposed that Democrats nominate a Republican speaker other than McCarthy. Read his op-ed here.