Indigenous Congress members frustrated with speaker vote

With the 11th vote for House speaker unsuccessful and following three days of failed votes, the United States House of Representatives is still without a speaker.

Many House members were frustrated at the stalemate, as others tried to bargain with holdouts in order to gain votes for Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

Newly elected and not yet sworn-in, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), continues to vote against McCarthy. Brecheen, Choctaw, talked with a couple news outlets about his vote and about how “out-of-control” spending is why he continues to vote against McCarthy. He reiterated this statement in a press release.

Brecheen’s office did not respond to an inquiry by ICT if the representative would support Rep. Tom Cole, Chickasaw, as a compromise candidate.

Cole told the Washington Post, “This is really again, a temper tantrum by a small group of members that can’t even agree amongst themselves who they ought to be supporting. I can’t count the number of different candidates that 20 people have voted for, and shifted their vote from vote to vote to vote to vote.”

Amid the stalemate, the House can not formally open for the new session of Congress. Newly elected members cannot be sworn in.

At-Large Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, Yup’ik, has been lighthearted in her tweets about the situation but understands how impactful it is to the work of the U.S. House.

“The gridlock over the Speaker vote is not normal or good for anyone. I am not enjoying this – I don’t think anyone is, and Alaskans deserve better,” Peltola said in a statement. “There is serious legislating that needs to be done and infighting is distracting us from even starting to work on the many problems we face.”

Peltola said her choice for Speaker of the House would be Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the former House Minority Leader and leader of the House Democratic Caucus.

The eventual Speaker will need to earn 218 votes in the House. McCarthy has yet to clear 203 in any of the votes. So far, the Associated Press reported that Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

However, Peltola said she would be willing to work with others regardless of political party.

“I came to D.C. to do the work, not to score political points against my colleagues or perform for television cameras,” she said in her statement. “If there are members who want to form a coalition majority like we often see in Alaska, I’m open to discussing that. Anything that gets us communicating with each other rather than talking at each other would be a good thing at this point.”

The Shawnee Mission Post reported that Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) is also not happy with the infighting in the Republican Party.

“I am not in the business of telling my colleagues how to do their jobs, but when it impacts my ability to deliver on the pressing needs of our community — like continuing our progress on lowering costs and tackling inflation, or starting to hammer out a bipartisan Farm Bill that benefits Kansas producers — I will speak up. It’s time to stop the infighting and get to work,” Davids said.

She later tweeted the same sentiment, asking the infighting to stop.

Congress adjourned Thursday evening and will reconvene Friday at noon eastern time.