When the new House of Representatives convenes on Friday, January 3rd, their first task will be to elect the next Speaker of the House.
And every time a new Speaker election is held, every mansplainer in DC (present company excluded, of course) loves to point out the fact that you don’t have to even be an elected member of the House to be elected speaker. To be speaker, one must be nominated by an elected member of the body, then receive a majority of those casting votes. Those are the only requirements—though recent history proves that it isn’t always so simple.
This means that—technically—Elon Musk, my elementary PE teacher (shout out Mr. Verti), and even you can be nominated and elected Speaker of the House. The House has never elected a non-member speaker, but every two years we see members nominate folks who aren’t serving in the House, mostly as a signal of protest against their party’s consensus nominee. Trump, for example, was nominated in 2023 by a GOP congressman who wasn’t thrilled with Kevin McCarthy.
tldr: Elon can be elected Speaker. But he won’t. The end.
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