From January 3 to January 7, 2023, the House of Representatives had no Speaker. Members voted fourteen times without electing one. It was the first time since 1923 that the election took more than one ballot.
Without a Speaker, no member could be sworn in, and the House could not adopt rules or do other business. An Associated Press report said: “Parliamentary procedure has been jettisoned in favor of controlled chaos.” During the fourteenth ballot, Representative Mike Rogers, arguing with Representative Matt Gaetz, “had to be physically restrained” by Representative Richard Hudson. Kevin McCarthy won on the fifteenth ballot.