LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On Tuesday, in a tight vote, the House of Representatives voted 216-210 to remove Republican Kevin McCarthy from his leadership position of Speaker of the House. It’s the first time in American history that such a vote was successful in removing a sitting speaker. The Democrats, in an alliance with eight Republicans who had personal or professional differences with McCarthy, were able to fire the Speaker whose job didn’t even last a year.

When McCarthy got the speaker job in January, it was because he had made concessions to win the position after 15 rounds of voting, including the guarantee of passing single-subject spending bills, no short-term spending bills and also changing the rule to allow only one member to propose a resolution to remove a Speaker. That rule change was the thing that did him in yesterday. It was Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz from Florida, who proposed the resolution who is reported to have personal animus for the speaker although he rejected the claim after the vote.

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Reasons given by Republicans for getting rid of McCarthy run the gamut including his leadership during the government shut down issue and those who have said he has broken the promises that he made when he took the Speaker position. Democrats are happy that he is gone because they say he’s not trustworthy and he’s too far-right.

Now that the vote is done, the Speaker of the House position is vacant until a new Speaker is elected and without an official Speaker in place, the House can’t conduct business.. North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHMenry has been appointed temporary Speaker Pro Tempore for the time being. McCarthy had chosen him for the position in January although his role had not been announced at the time. So far, as of the publication of this article, only Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) have thrown their hats into the ring to run for the Speaker position.

The House is now in recess for the rest of the week. Not everyone was happy with the recess announcement though. Rep. Gaetz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview, “We should get to electing a new, more conservative and more trustworthy Speaker immediately. I’m calling on [Patrick McHenry], who is currently the Speaker Pro Tem, to reconsider the decision that he just made to send everyone in Congress home for a week. This is not the time to go home for a week. We should stay and elect a new Speaker.”

Although McCarthy can run for the Speaker position again, he has chosen not to do so. After the vote, he said, “I may have lost the vote today, but as I walk out of this chamber, I feel fortunate to have served the American people. I leave the speakership with a sense of pride, accomplishment and, yes, optimism.”

Candidates being suggested to replace McCarthy include Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY). The Speaker, however, does not have to be from the House of Representatives, and Trump supporters are already speaking out to push him as a candidate including Republican Texas Rep. Troy Nehls who says he would nominate him. However, most consider the success of Trump winning the speakership to be very unlikely.

In Michigan, all six Republicans in the House stood behind McCarthy and voted to keep him as speaker, including Reps. Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar, Bill Huizenga, Tim Walberg, Lisa McClain and John James. All seven Michigan Democrats in the House voted to remove McCarthy from his leadership position including Hillary Scholten, Debbie Dingell, Elissa Slotkin, Dan Kildee, Haley Stevens, Rashida Tlaib and Shri Thanedar.

Michigan Republican Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-05) said Tuesday’s vote was a “blow to the conservative movement” that will not help lawmakers achieve their goals and issued the following statement: “Today, eight Republicans joined the entire Democratic Caucus to derail a successful conservative agenda. This was a blow to the conservative movement and will not help us achieve our goals of reining in government spending, securing our border, and reversing the disastrous results from the Biden agenda. Make no mistake – many of the eight also recently joined the Democrats to vote against the strongest border security bill in history and some of the most significant spending reforms in our history. Today’s action will also impede the oversight being conducted on the Biden family. My focus will always be on improving our economy and increasing our safety, but this presents a new challenge due to House Democrats and the eight Republicans who partnered with them.”

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Michigan Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain (MI-09) was frustrated with the vote and when asked said she didn’t see a viable alternative to McCarthy. She called the whole thing a wasted exercise when the lawmakers have “more work to do” on other priorities. She said, ”We’re on the path to doing some really good work, and we have some disruptors that – to what end are we doing this to?”

Michigan Republican Congressman John Moolenaar (MI-02) said about the vote, ”These are personal grievances that should be worked out in a way that doesn’t throw everything to a halt and the nation’s business. I believe this is a mistake to vacate the chair. I think Kevin McCarthy has done more to bring accountability and transparency to the appropriations process than any other speaker. And when you look at the bills we’ve passed, whether it’s energy independence, securing the border – we were accomplishing the things that we said we do. So, this is an unfortunate disruption in the progress we’ve been making.

Michigan Republican Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-04) said the strategy of removing McCarthy will not “somehow produce a more conservative Speaker or more conservative policy.” He added, “And by the way, he’s [Rep. Gaetz] been teaming up with Democrats to go make this happen. It’s actually doing exactly what he’s accusing Kevin of doing.”

Huizenga was on the Steve Gruber Show this morning and called the vote an “unnecessary and stupid way to go.” He said that many of the Republican congressional house representatives have been pushing leadership to return to “regular order” which he says was starting to happen – but is now stalled.

Asked what the next steps are, Huizenga said, “I don’t know.” When Gruber pointed out that he was in the meeting after the vote and asked who might step up to be the next Speaker, the congressman said, “The question mark is Steve Scalise. He would be the most logical person. He’s well liked, he’s conservative. He’s got the infrastructure and the ability to move forward.”

Huizenga went on discuss the other issue that is concerning to the Republican party and that is the next election cycle. He said, “Virtually every race is now a national race” and pointed out how he has to explain his position on something that someone else in his conference does such as Matt Gaetz.

Huizenga added that fundraising for House victory is also a big issue. He said, “It takes a tremendous amount of money to attempt to deliver a majority” and pointed out the 20 close and expensive districts where Biden won and said, “How do you go and make sure that they have the resources to go tell their own story…We’re going to need someone who has some confidence with those who are helping us to go win these elections. That takes relationships.”

On the other side of the aisle, Michigan Democratic house representatives also had things to say about firing McCarthy. Michigan Democratic Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) from the Detroit area said that McCarthy had “consistently pushed an extremist agenda – yet he’s still not extreme enough for his own party.” She added, “In less than 40-something days, we’re going to be facing another possibility of a government shutdown, and we’ve got to get the work done. This is going to be huge barrier, huge obstacle to doing the work of the American people. I’m just thinking about all of the number of our residents that will be impacted by the delay.”

Michigan Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-08) said it was a “sad day, but one that Kevin McCarthy brought upon himself. At the end of the day, he’s untrustworthy. There’s just so many instances where people have taken him at his word, and it has blown up.”

Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (MI-07), who is running to be Michigan’s next senator, told Christiane Amanpour in an interview after the vote on CNN regarding McCarthy, “The chickens have come home to roost…He wants to be Speaker so bad that he made deals with the right-wing of his party.” She went on to say, “Who does the Republican party want to be? Do they want to be the party that gets back to having strong views but debates things like fiscal conservatism or do they want to be extreme and be beholden to the extremist wing?”

Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06) sent out an X/Tweet saying, “No one should take joy in what happened today. It’s a sad day for Congress. The Republican Conference has allowed a small group of extremists to cause chaos & dysfunction. This isn’t what we were elected to do and I hope we can quickly return to the work of the American people.”