Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Richard S. Beth
Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process
Valerie Heitshusen
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
January 7, 2015
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RL30857
CRS Report for Congress
Pr
epared for Members and Committees of Congress
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Summary
Each new House elects a Speaker by roll call vote when it first convenes. Customarily, the
conference of each major party nominates a candidate whose name is placed in nomination.
Members normally vote for the candidate of their own party conference, but may vote for any
individual, whether nominated or not. To be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute
majority of all the votes cast for individuals. This number may be less than a majority (now 218)
of the full membership of the House, because of vacancies, absentees, or Members voting
“present.”
This report provides data on elections of the Speaker in each Congress since 1913, when the
House first reached its present size of 435 Members. During that period (63rd through 114th
Congresses), a Speaker was elected five times with the votes of less than a majority of the full
membership.
If a Speaker dies or resigns during a Congress, the House immediately elects a new one. Four
such elections have been necessary since 1913. In the earlier two cases, the House elected the
new Speaker by resolution; in the more recent two, the body used the same procedure as at the
outset of a Congress.
If no candidate receives the requisite majority, the roll call is repeated until a Speaker is elected.
Since 1913, this procedure has been necessary only in 1923, when nine ballots were required
before a Speaker was elected.
From 1913 through 1943, it usually happened that some Members voted for candidates other than
those of the two major parties. The candidates in question were usually those representing the
“progressive” group (reformers originally associated with the Republican party), and in some
Congresses, their names were formally placed in nomination on behalf of that group. From 1943
through 1995, only the nominated Republican and Democratic candidates received votes,
representing the culmination of the establishment of an exclusively two-party system at the
national level.
In seven of the 10 elections since 1997 (105th, 107th,108th, 109th, 112th, 113th, and 114th
Congresses), however, some Members voted for Members of their own party other than the party
nominee. In addition, some Members in 1997, 2013, and 2015 voted for candidates who were not
then Members of the House. Although the Constitution does not so require, the Speaker has
always been a Member. Further, in 2001, a Member affiliated with one major party voted for the
nominee of the other. Until then, House practice had long taken for granted that voting for
Speaker was demonstrative of party affiliation in the House.
The report will be updated as additional elections for Speaker occur.
Congressional Research Service
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Contents
Regular and Special Elections of the Speaker ................................................................................. 1
Size of the House and Majority Required to Elect .......................................................................... 1
Third and Additional Candidates ..................................................................................................... 3
Tables
Table 1. Individuals Receiving Votes for Speaker, 1913-2015 ........................................................ 5
Contacts
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 9
Congressional Research Service
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Regular and Special Elections of the Speaker
The traditional practice of the House is to elect a Speaker by roll call vote upon first convening
after a general election of Representatives. Customarily, the conference of each major party in the
House selects a candidate whose name is formally placed in nomination before the roll call.
Members may vote for one of these nominated candidates or for another individual. Usually,
Members vote for the candidate nominated by their own party conference, since the outcome of
this vote in effect establishes which party has the majority, and therefore will organize the House.
Table 1 presents data on the votes cast for candidates for Speaker of the House of Representatives
in each Congress from 1913 (63rd Congress) through 2015 (114th Congress). It shows the votes
cast for the nominees of the two major parties, other candidates nominated from the floor, and
individuals not formally nominated.
Included in the table are not only the elections held regularly at the outset of each Congress, but
also those held during the course of a Congress as a result of the death or resignation of a sitting
Speaker. Such elections have occurred four times during the period examined:
• in 1936 (74th Congress) upon the death of Speaker Joseph Byrns (D-TN);
• in 1940 (76th Congress) upon the death of Speaker William Bankhead (D-AL);
• in 1962 (87th Congress) upon the death of Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX); and
• in 1989 (101st Congress) upon the resignation of Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX).
On the two earlier occasions among these four, the election was by resolution rather than by roll
call vote. On the more recent two, the same procedure was followed as at the start of a Congress.
Size of the House and Majority Required to Elect
The data presented here cover the period during which the permanent size of the House has been
set at 435 Members. This period corresponds to that since the admission of Arizona and New
Mexico as the 47th and 48th states in 1912. The actual size of the House was 436, and then 437, for
a brief period between the admission of Alaska and Hawaii (in 1958 and 1959) and the
reapportionment of Representatives following the 1960 census.
By practice of the House going back to its earliest days, an absolute majority of the Members
present and voting is required in order to elect a Speaker. A majority of the full membership of the
House (218, in a House of 435) is not required. Precedents emphasize that the requirement is for a
majority of “the total number of votes cast for a person by name.”1 A candidate for Speaker may
receive a majority of the votes cast, and be elected, while failing to obtain a majority of the full
membership, because some Members either are not present to vote, or vote “present” rather than
voting for a candidate. During the period examined, this kind of result has occurred five times:
1 The Clerk, “Parliamentary Inquiry,” remarks from the chair, Congressional Record, vol. 143, January 7, 1997, p. 117.
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Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
• in 1917 (65th Congress), “Champ” Clark (D-MO) was elected with 217 votes;
• in 1923 (68th Congress), Frederick Gillett (R-MA) was elected with 215 votes;
• in 1943 (78th Congress), Sam Rayburn (D-TX) was elected with 217 votes;
• in 1997 (105th Congress), Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was elected with 216 votes;
and
• in 2015 (114th Congress), John Boehner (R-OH) was elected with 216 votes.
In addition, in 1931 (72nd Congress), the candidate of the new Democratic majority, John Nance
Garner of Texas (later Vice President), received 218 votes, a bare majority of the membership.
The table does not take into account the number of vacancies existing in the House at the time of
the election; it therefore cannot show whether or not any Speaker may have been elected lacking
a majority of the then qualified membership of the House.2
If no candidate obtains the requisite majority, the roll call is repeated. On these subsequent
ballots, Members may still vote for any individual; no restrictions have ever been imposed, such
as that the lowest candidate on each ballot must drop out, or that no new candidate may enter.
Because of the predominance of the two established national parties throughout the period
examined, only once during that period did the House fail to elect on the first roll call.3 In 1923
(68th Congress), in a closely divided House, both major party nominees initially failed to gain a
majority because of votes cast for other candidates by Members from the Progressive Party, or
from the “progressive” wing of the Republican Party. Progressives agreed to vote for the
Republican candidate only on the ninth ballot, after the Republican leadership had agreed to
accept a number of procedural reforms favored by the progressives. Thus the Republican was
ultimately elected, although (as noted earlier) still with less than a majority of the full
membership.4
2 The existence of vacancies at the point when a new House first convened was more common before the 20th
Amendment took effect in 1936. Until that time, a Congress elected in one November did not begin its term until
March of the following year, and did not convene until December of that year, unless the previous Congress provided
otherwise by law.
3 This occurrence, however, was more common before the period covered in this report, when the two-party system had
not become as thoroughly established, nor the discipline accompanying it as pronounced.
4 Full results were as follows:
Ballot and Date
Gillett (R)
Garrett (D)
Cooper
Madden
Present
1 December 3, 1923
197
195
17
5
4
2 December 3
194
194
17
6
3
3 December 3
195
196
17
5
3
4 December 3
197
196
17
5
3
5 December 4
197
197
17
5
3
6 December 4
195
197
17
5
3
7 December 4
196
198
17
5
3
8 December 4
197
198
17
5
3
9 December 5
215
197
0
2
4
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Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Third and Additional Candidates
The opening of the 105th Congress in 1997 marked the first time since 1943 that anyone other
than the two major party candidates received votes for Speaker. Exclusively two-party voting had
characterized the entire period since World War II, and the entire period of the “modern
Congress,” usually reckoned from the implementation in 1947 (80th Congress) of the Legislative
Reorganization Act of 1946 (P.L. 79-601, 60 Stat. 812).
Earlier, however, the presence of votes for other candidates was normal, occurring in 11 of the 16
Congresses (63rd through 78th) that convened from 1913 through 1943. On seven of those 11
occasions, candidates for Speaker, in addition to those of the two major parties, were formally
nominated. These events reflect chiefly the influence in Congress, during those three decades, of
the progressive movement. The additional nominations were offered in the name of that
movement, and the votes cast for Members other than the major party nominees also generally
represent an expression of progressive sentiments.
The pattern of occurrence of additional nominations (displayed in the table) reflects changing
views of Members identifying themselves as “progressives” about whether to constitute
themselves in the House as a separate Progressive Party caucus or as a wing of the Republican
Party. So does the pattern of shifts in the party labels by which these nominees and others
receiving votes chose to designate themselves. The last formal Progressive Party nominee
appeared in 1937 (75th Congress). After defeats in the following election, the only two remaining
Members representing the Progressive Party were reduced to voting for each other for Speaker,
and beginning in 1947 (80th Congress), the last standard bearer of the tendency accepted the
Republican label. The demise of this movement in the House represented the final stage in the
establishment of a two-party system at the national level.
In 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2015, at least one Member voted for a Member of
their own party who was not that party’s official nominee. These events seem to manifest a new
pattern of behavior in elections for Speaker. Votes cast for other candidates in these years seem
more often to have reflected specific circumstances and events than established factions or
identifiable political groupings. Votes cast for other candidates in these years reflected specific
circumstances and events, however, rather than established factions or even identifiable political
groupings.
The 1997, 2013, and 2015 ballots were also notable because votes were cast for candidates who
were not Members of the House at the time. Although the Constitution does not require the
Speaker (or any other officer of either chamber) to be a Member, the Speaker has always been so,
and it is not known that any votes for individuals other than Members to be Speaker had ever
previously been cast in the entire history of the House.
Notably, in 2001, a Member who bore the designation of one major party voted for the nominee
of the other. Although the table below does not indicate the party affiliation of the Members
voting for each candidate, examination of other available records confirms that no such action
had occurred at least for the previous half century. Rather, House practice had long taken for
granted that the vote for Speaker determines, or at least demonstrates, not only which parties
command majority and minority status, but also of which Members each of these parties is
composed. Subsequently, in organizing for that Congress (the 107th), the party caucus against
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Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
whose nominee the Member in question voted did not formally expel him, but declined to provide
him with committee assignments.
Congressional Research Service
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Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2013
Table 1. Individuals Receiving Votes for Speaker, 1913-2015
Year
Republican Nominee
Votes
Democratic Nominee
Votes
Others Receiving Votes
Votes
1913
James R. Mann (IL)
111
James B. (“Champ”) Clark (MO)
272
Victor Murdock (P-KS)
18
Henry A. Cooper (R-WI)
4
John M. Nelson (R-WI)
1
1915
James R. Mann (IL)
195
James B. (“Champ”) Clark (MO)
222
1917
James R. Mann (IL)
205
James B. (“Champ”) Clark (MO)
217
Irvine L. Lenroot (R-WI)
2
Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA)
2
1919
Frederick H. Gillett (MA)
228
James B. (“Champ”) Clark (MO)
172
1921
Frederick H. Gillett (MA)
297
Claude Kitchin (NC)
122
1923 (first ballot)
Frederick H. Gillett (MA)
197
Finis J. Garrett (TN)
195
Henry A. Cooper (R-WI)
17
Martin B. Madden (R-IL)
5
(ninth ballot)
Frederick H. Gillett (MA)
215
Finis J. Garrett (TN)
197
Martin B. Madden (R-IL)
2
1925
Nicholas Longworth (OH)
229
Finis J. Garrett (TN)
173
Henry A. Cooper (R-WI)
13
1927
Nicholas Longworth (OH)
225
Finis J. Garrett (TN)
187
1929
Nicholas Longworth (OH)
254
John N. Garner (TX)
143
1931
Bertrand H. Snel (NY)
207
John N. Garner (TX)
218
George J. Schneider (R-WI)
5
1933
Bertrand H. Snel (NY)
110
Henry T. Rainey (IL)
302
Paul J. Kvale (F-L-MN)
5
1935
Bertrand H. Snell (NY)
95
Joseph W. Byrns (TN)
317
George J. Schneider (P-WI)
9
W.P. Lambertson (R-KS)
2
1936 (June 4)a
William B. Bankhead (AL) (H.Res. 543)b voice
vote
1937
Bertrand H. Snell (NY)
83
William B. Bankhead (AL)
324
George J. Schneider (P-WI)
10
Fred L. Crawford (R-MI)
2
1939
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
168
William B. Bankhead (AL)
249
Merlin Hull (P-WI)
1
Bernard J. Gehrmann (P-WI)
1
1940 (Sept. 16)a
Sam Rayburn (TX)
voice vote
(H.Res. 602)b
1941
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
159
Sam Rayburn (TX)
247
Merlin Hull (P-WI)
2
Bernard J. Gehrmann (P-WI)
1
1943
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
206
Sam Rayburn (TX)
217
Merlin Hull (P-WI)
1
Harry Sauthoff (P-WI)
1
CRS-5
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2013
Year
Republican Nominee
Votes
Democratic Nominee
Votes
Others Receiving Votes
Votes
1945
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
168
Sam Rayburn (TX)
224
1947
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
244
Sam Rayburn (TX)
182
1949
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
160
Sam Rayburn (TX)
255
1951
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
193
Sam Rayburn (TX)
231
1953
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
220
Sam Rayburn (TX)
201
1955
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
198
Sam Rayburn (TX)
228
1957
Joseph W. Martin (MA)
199
Sam Rayburn (TX)
227
1959
Charles A. Halleck (IN)
148
Sam Rayburn (TX)
281
1961
Charles A. Halleck (IN)
170
Sam Rayburn (TX) 258
1962 (Jan. 10)a
Charles A. Halleck (IN)
166
John W. McCormack (MA)
248
1963
Charles A. Halleck (IN)
175
John W. McCormack (MA)
256
1965
Gerald R. Ford (MI)
139
John W. McCormack (MA)
289
1967
Gerald R. Ford (MI)
186
John W. McCormack (MA)
246
1969
Gerald R. Ford (MI)
187
John W. McCormack (MA)
241
1971
Gerald R. Ford (MI)
176
Carl B. Albert (OK)
250
1973
Gerald R. Ford (MI)
188
Carl B. Albert (OK) 236
1975
John J. Rhodes (AZ)
143
Carl B. Albert (OK)
287
1977
John J. Rhodes (AZ)
142
Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill (MA)
290
1979
John J. Rhodes (AZ)
152
Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill (MA)
268
1981
Robert H. Michel (IL)
183
Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill (MA)
233
1983
Robert H. Michel (IL)
155
Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill (MA)
260
1985
Robert H. Michel (IL)
175
Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill (MA)
247
1987
Robert H. Michel (IL)
173
Jim Wright (TX)
254
1989
Robert H. Michel (IL)
170
Jim Wright (TX)
253
1989 (June 6)a
Robert H. Michel (IL)
164
Thomas S. Foley (WA)
251
1991
Robert H. Michel (IL)
165
Thomas S. Foley (WA)
262
1993
Robert H. Michel (IL)
174
Thomas S. Foley (WA)
255
CRS-6
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2013
Year
Republican Nominee
Votes
Democratic Nominee
Votes
Others Receiving Votes
Votes
1995
Newt Gingrich (GA)
228
Richard A. Gephardt (MO)
202
1997
Newt Gingrich (GA)
216
Richard A. Gephardt (MO)
205
James Leach (R-IA)
2
Robert H. Michelc
1
Robert Walkerc
1
1999
J. Dennis Hastert (IL)
220
Richard A. Gephardt (MO)
205
2001
J. Dennis Hastert (IL)
222
Richard A. Gephardt (MO)
206
John P. Murtha (D-PA)
1
2003
J. Dennis Hastert (IL)
228
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
201
John P. Murtha (D-PA)
1
2005
J. Dennis Hastert (IL)
226
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
199
John P. Murtha (D-PA)
1
2007
John A. Boehner (OH)
202
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
233
2009
John A. Boehner (OH)
174
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
255
2011
John A. Boehner (OH)
241
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
173
Heath Shuler (D-NC)
11
John Lewis (D-GA)
2
Jim Costa (D-CA)
1
Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
1
Jim Cooper (D-TN)
1
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
1
Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD)
1
2013
John A. Boehner (OH)
220
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
192
Eric Cantor (R-VA)
3
Allen Westc
2
Jim Cooper (D-TN)
2
John Lewis (D-GA)
1
Colin Powellc
1
Raúl R. Labrador (R-ID)
1
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
1
David Walkerc
1
Justin Amash (R-MI)
1
John Dingell (D-MI)
1
CRS-7
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2013
Year
Republican Nominee
Votes
Democratic Nominee
Votes
Others Receiving Votes
Votes
2015
John A. Boehner (OH)
216
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
164
Daniel Webster (R-FL)
12
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
3
Ted S. Yoho (R-FL)
2
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
2
Jim Cooper (D-TN)
1
Peter A. DeFazio (D-OR)
1
Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
1
Trey Gowdy (R-SC)
1
John Lewis (D-GA)
1
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
1
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) c
1
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)c
1
Colin Powellc
1
Source: Journals of the House of Representatives (for 2003-2011, Congressional Record, daily edition, and for 2013 and 2015, Clerk of the House website). Party
designations are taken from the Congressional Directory for the respective years since these reflect a Member’s official party self-designation; historical sources may differ as
to the effective party affiliation of certain individuals.
Key:
Elected candidate in bold.
“Other” candidate’s name formally placed in nomination in italic.
Party designations of “other” candidates: R = Republican, P = Progressive, F-L = Farmer-Labor.
Notes:
a. Special election to fil a vacancy in the Speakership caused by death or resignation.
b. Elected by resolution, not by rol cal from nominations.
c. Not a Member of the House at the time.
CRS-8
Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2015
Author Contact Information
Richard S. Beth
Valerie Heitshusen
Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
rbeth@crs.loc.gov, 7-8667
vheitshusen@crs.loc.gov, 7-8635
Congressional Research Service
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