The House voted on Tuesday to oust Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, from the speakership, an unprecedented development that plunged the chamber into chaos.
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida led the effort to topple him, and eight Republicans joined Democrats to remove Mr. McCarthy, making him the first speaker to lose the gavel in this way. Here’s what to expect next:
What now?
Representative Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina and a top deputy to Mr. McCarthy, was named the speaker pro tempore, essentially an interim speaker who may only wield the gavel in overseeing the election of a new speaker. Mr. McHenry was the first name on a private succession list Mr. McCarthy submitted at the start of his speakership.
The House will next move to select a new speaker. House Republicans were meeting on Tuesday to chart their next steps.
Selecting the next speaker
House Democrats plan to nominate Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to the speakership. His ascent is extremely unlikely since Republicans control the majority.
But it is not clear who, if anyone, in the House G.O.P. can earn the majority of votes needed to win a speaker’s race. And Mr. McCarthy said on Tuesday that he would not run for speaker again, according to lawmakers who attended a closed-door meeting underneath the Capitol.
No other Republicans have yet put themselves forward. Names that have been floated include: Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for blood cancer; Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 Republican in the House and the majority whip; Representative Elise Stefanik, the top woman in Republican leadership; Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the widely respected chair of the House Rules Committee; and Mr. McHenry, who will likely resist calls to run for the official job.
Until someone can win 218 votes or more, the House will continue to hold elections in an ongoing speaker’s race.
What about other legislative business in the House?
In the meantime, essentially all other action in the House will be halted.
One deadline is looming. The government will shut down in mid-November after the expiration of a temporary funding measure that Congress approved over the weekend. That’s unless Congress can pass all 12 of its yearlong spending bills or another stopgap funding bill — a tall task made even more challenging by the chaos of a speaker’s race.
