--- title: Boehner Reelected House Speaker description: The 114th Congress voted to reelect Speaker John Boehner to a third term after a minor scare from conservatives. canonical: https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-06T20:06:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:23.729Z article:section: Politics og:title: Boehner Reelected House Speaker og:description: The 114th Congress voted to reelect Speaker John Boehner to a third term after a minor scare from conservatives. og:url: https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt326949a30e3bba7a/69877867524fc0afb6debbe0/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John Boehner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Boehner Reelected House Speaker twitter:description: The 114th Congress voted to reelect Speaker John Boehner to a third term after a minor scare from conservatives. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt326949a30e3bba7a/69877867524fc0afb6debbe0/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Boehner Re-Elected House Speaker by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jan 6, 2015 8:06 PM UTC  House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio takes the oath of office after being re-elected to a third term during the opening session of the 114th Congress, as Republicans assume full control for the first time in eight years, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. ( House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio takes the oath of office after being re-elected to a third term during the opening session of the 114th Congress, as Republicans assume full control for the first time in eight years, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jan 6, 2015 8:06 PM UTC The 114th Congress voted to reelect Speaker John Boehner to a third term at the House’s top post after a small group of conservatives brought a minor scare to elect a backbencher. The vote to elect the Speaker of the “New American Congress,” as Republicans are calling it, had the atmosphere of kids at the first day of school, with members laughing at those who caused a scene—like Massachusetts Rep. Michael Capuano, who voted for “Nancy D’ALESSANDRO Pelosi” in a shout, and Florida Rep. Ted Yoho—”YOHO!”—who voted for himself. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who were sitting an aisle apart, shared a bewildered glance and a smile when Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema cast a vote for Lewis. Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert gave off an excellent “why not” [shrug](http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/rep-louie-gohmert-s-perfect-response-to-voting-for-himself-for-speaker-20150106) when he voted for himself for Speaker. There were several unexpected votes, including ones for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. First-year members who campaigned against the Washington establishment like Virginia Republican Rep. Dave Brat, who beat former Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his primary, and Florida Democrat Gwen Graham voted against their party leaders and for South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan and Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper, respectively. The majority of the anti-Boehner conservatives votes went to Republican Rep. Dan Webster, a little-known member outside of Florida where he has served as the state’s House speaker and Senate Majority Leader, who garnered 12 votes. The opposition to Boehner proved to be loud enough to hear but not strong enough to really matter. ### Photos: Meet America's 10 Newest Senators  Joni Ernst A Lieutenant Colonel of the Iowa Army National Guard, Ernst has served on the Iowa State Senate since 2004. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  David Perdue A businessman from Macon, Ga., Perdue makes his political debut in the seat of retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss. David Goldman—AP  Tom CottonA U.S. Army Veteran and lawyer, Cotton has served as Representative for Arkansas's 4th district since 2012 and now moves on to the Senate. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  Cory Gardner Gardner formerly served in the Colorado House of Representatives and U.S. House of Representatives. He beat incumbent Sen. Mark Udall. David Zalubowski—AP  Thom Tillis Tillis is the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives and has served there 2006. Davis Turner—Getty Images  Mike Rounds From Huron, S.D., Rounds served as South Dakota governor from 2003 to 2011. Michael Conroy—AP  Shelley Moore Capito The daughter of former West Virginia Gov. Arch Alfred Moore, Jr., Capito has served as a U.S. Representative for West Virginia's 2nd District since 2001. Tyler Evert—AP  Steve DainesA businessman with Procter & Gamble for 13 years, Daines became a member of the House of Representatives in 2013. Michael Albans—AP  James LankfordLankford has served as Representative for Oklahoma's 5th District since 2011. Sue Ogrocki—AP  Ben Sasse The President of Midland University in Fremont, Neb., since 2010, Sasse won the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Mike Johanns. Nati Harnik—AP Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a frequent critic of Boehner, voted for Webster but said he didn’t ask anyone to oppose the Speaker. “There is a lot of power in that office; I know some folks feel a lot of pressure and feel like they are being intimidated,” said Huelskamp, who criticized the way the congressional leadership brought to the floor the end of the year government spending bill. “And that is part of the problem. Speaker Boehner promised an open process and that hasn’t happened. As we saw in the CROmnibus—a 1,600 page bill thrown down and we had less than two days to read it and no chance to allow amendments—that is exactly what he told us he would change about the previous Speaker.” The vast majority of Republicans and Democrats voted for their party’s leader; 216 cast votes for Boehner and 164 for Pelosi out of 408 total votes. Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, who supported Boehner and chairs the Rules Committee, said that he was excited for the new session but recognized the concerns of vocal conservatives who voted against Boehner. “It’s a wake up call for everybody,” said Sessions. “We need to be aware that we got to do a better job to effectively communicate what we stand for and why we’re here. When you take $200 million away from the IRS because you’ve been trying to do that for four years, and people don’t respect that even though they had asked for it, then there’s a problem.” “Go and set some new expectations of what to call a victory,” he added. In his speech after the vote, Boehner asked the House to “stand tall and prove the skeptics wrong.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/"},"headline":"Boehner Re-Elected House Speaker","datePublished":"2015-01-06T20:06:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:23.729Z","description":"The 114th Congress voted to reelect Speaker John Boehner to a third term after a minor scare from conservatives.","url":"https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/","keywords":["Congress","John Boehner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt326949a30e3bba7a/69877867524fc0afb6debbe0/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt326949a30e3bba7a/69877867524fc0afb6debbe0/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Boehner","caption":"John Boehner","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3656401/boehner-speaker-reelected/","name":"Boehner Re-Elected House Speaker"}}]}] ```