Will the GOP Work With Democrats to Elect a Speaker? They Did in Ohio

One of the more fanciful scenarios involving the election of a Republican House speaker includes the highly unlikely proposition that a group of GOP moderates would join with some Democrats to elect a more moderate speaker.

As crazy as this sounds, that scenario played out in Ohio — albeit for different reasons and under different circumstances.

According to Pluribus News, Ohio Republicans voted last month for state Rep. Derek Merrin to be speaker. But when the full House was assembled, Rep. Jason Stephen emerged victorious after he had cobbled together an unlikely coalition of Democrats and Republicans. The final tally for speaker was 54-43.

Mr. Merrin was none too pleased.

“We have a 67-seat Republican majority, and the Democrats chose the speaker of the House,” Mr. Merrin told the Toledo Blade after the vote. “What happened here today is self-explanatory by the vote totals. The Democrats have chosen who the speaker of the House will be.”

Ratings in 2021 from the American Conservative Union, a group that evaluates state legislators based on their votes on conservative legislation, showed Stephens and Merrin received identical scores. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce named both members to their 2021 list of Champions of Business.

Ohio political observers said some Republicans were anxious about angering labor unions, who still play a substantial role in state politics, if they backed Merrin. Merrin had been open to passing right-to-work legislation, which limits the ability of labor unions to collect dues.

Mr. Merrin had been championed by staunchly conservative organizations, but indications were that, among other things, the fourth-term lawmaker’s support for making Ohio a right-to-work state led Republicans concerned about the labor vote in their districts to peel off.

In Ohio, the dividing line was labor. In our nation’s capital, it’s ideology, personality, and thirst for power that is cleaving the GOP in two. But if a compromise candidate doesn’t emerge soon, might that fanciful scenario come to pass?

McCarthy said before the floor vote on the speakership that some of his detractors wouldn’t mind if a Democrat ended up speaker.

“Last night I was presented the only way to have 218 votes if I provided certain members with certain positions, certain gavels, to take over the church committee, to have certain budgets,” McCarthy claimed in a floor speech. “And they even came to the position where one, Matt Gaetz, said ‘I don’t care if we go to plurality and we elect Hakeem Jeffries.”

McCarthy: "Matt Gaetz said, 'I don't care if we go to plurality and we elect Hakeem Jeffries.'" pic.twitter.com/wJRlNvDSty

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 3, 2023

I don’t think moderate Republicans would be dumb enough to let Democrats elect the next speaker. Of course, Democrats would like nothing better than to have the incoming speaker beholden to them for a favor or two. Any move to involve Democrats in the speaker election could lead to a Republican schism that could easily become a move to form a breakaway party as President Teddy Roosevelt did in 1912, when he and his progressive supporters were frozen out of the convention.

A more likely scenario is a series of threats issued to the 20-odd members who won’t vote for McCarthy or anyone not connected to the Freedom Caucus. A threat to be removed from committees, denied campaign funds from the re-election committees — the list of petty annoyances that senior members can inflict on the rebels is extensive.

Both sides are enraged at the other, leading me to believe this will not end quickly — or well.