[ [link removed] ]Katie Porter for Congress

John,

In the very early hours of Saturday morning, I was finally sworn in to
Congress, after Republicans officially elected Kevin McCarthy as
Speaker—on the fifteenth try.

Kevin McCarthy was able to win the support of his caucus by promising to
empower extremists and further tip the scale towards special interests.
Americans deserve better than Kevin McCarthy’s loyalty to some of the most
hateful members of his party. 

Now, I’m glad to be back home in California and ready to continue serving
Orange County families. 

Katie

If you’re curious about why the House was at a standstill all week, check
out this email I sent on Thursday explaining the process of electing a
Speaker.

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Hey John, I emailed you on
Tuesday saying I would be sworn in…well, turns out, the Republicans’
inability to elect a Speaker means that didn’t happen. This is highly
unusual, so let me explain what’s going on: 

To be elected Speaker of the House, a Member needs a majority of the votes
(that magic number is 218). Typically, the party in power figures out who
they’ll be electing in advance, and the Speaker vote is largely
ceremonial. But this year, twenty Republicans have decided to oppose the
presumed Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Without their votes, McCarthy doesn’t
have the majority he needs to be made Speaker. 

We don’t know what is happening behind closed doors in the Republican
caucus, but Kevin McCarthy’s only move at this point is to continue
bringing this vote to the floor. And each time (we’ve voted on this six
times already!) he fails to win the majority.

So who is going to be Speaker of the House? The very real answer is I’m
not sure!

Here’s what I do know: The House can’t do *anything* until we have a
Speaker. We can’t swear in Members, we can’t operate committees, we can’t
vote on bills. That’s just how Congress operates. We need a Speaker of the
House in order to proceed.

For the foreseeable future, I will be here in D.C., waiting for
Republicans to cut the BS and elect a Speaker. It’s been 100 years since a
Speaker failed to be elected after a first vote, so we’re all guessing
what the next move will be.

This certainly does feel like an episode of a political TV show—I’ll be
sure to keep you updated. 

Katie Porter 

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