--- title: Speaker of the House: Vote on Replacement for John Boehner description: Here's a little known fact about the House Speaker: He or she doesn't have to be an elected member of Congress canonical: https://time.com/4052324/john-boehner-house-speaker-poll-kevin-mccarthy-kanye-west/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-28T18:54:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-17T16:29:25.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Poll: Who Would You Pick to Become the Next Speaker of the House? og:description: It could even be you og:url: https://time.com/4052324/john-boehner-house-speaker-poll-kevin-mccarthy-kanye-west/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte648098105ba8cb4/6988657e0a4a22f5de9c642b/kevin-mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: House To Vote On Three-Month U.S. Highway Measure, Lawmakers Say og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Poll: Who Would You Pick to Become the Next Speaker of the House? twitter:description: It could even be you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte648098105ba8cb4/6988657e0a4a22f5de9c642b/kevin-mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poll: Who Would You Pick to Become the Next Speaker of the House? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Updated: Jan 17, 2024 4:29 PM UTCPublished: Sep 28, 2015 6:54 PM UTC  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, right, looks on as U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, speaks. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, right, looks on as U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, speaks. Bloomberg—Getty Images  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Updated: Jan 17, 2024 4:29 PM UTCPublished: Sep 28, 2015 6:54 PM UTC Here’s a little known fact about the House Speaker: He or she doesn’t have to be an elected member of Congress. In fact, House Speakers tend not to vote. All the Constitution says in [Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5](http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution%5Ftranscript.html) is: “The House of Representatives shall chuse \[sic\] their Speaker and other Officers.” So, in the wake of House speaker John Boehner’s abrupt retirement on Friday, the next House Speaker could technically be ANYBODY. It could be you. It could be Kanye West. It could even be Grumpy Cat. Well, he or she probably has to be human. But there’s no age requirement, no citizenship requirement and no requirement that the Speaker be an elected official. We thought it might be fun to expand the field beyond the obvious House Republican members. Here are some of our nominees. 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