Lauren Boebert Takes Long Pause Before Nominating Kevin Hern for Speaker

Representative Lauren Boebert elicited jeers from her fellow Congress members on Thursday as she made a surprising choice for speaker of the House. The Colorado Republican prefaced her vote by cheekily noting that she'd be opting for "Kevin," but her pick wasn't the person that some may have initially assumed.

On Thursday, the House speaker race dragged on following several voting rounds the previous two days. Although Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, was once considered the frontrunner, his chances of securing the spot have dwindled as a group of hardline conservatives seeks to prevent his win.

Republicans enjoy only a narrow majority in the House with 222 representatives. If each member of Congress were to cast their ballot, McCarthy would have to receive 218 votes to prevail.

McCarthy has grown more desperate with each failed attempt to score the position, offering up concessions to try and please his GOP detractors. In spite of such efforts, he again fell short on Thursday afternoon during the eighth-round vote.

Boebert, who had previously voted for Florida Representative Byron Donalds and Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, seemed for a moment to have walked back her disdain for McCarthy during the latest vote.

"I rise to cast my vote for a member not of the Freedom Caucus, but for Kevin," she said, taking a pause before continuing, "the unanimously elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a businessman from humble beginnings, a leader, a true consensus candidate that can deliver on promises we have made to the American people.

"I vote today for Kevin Hern of Oklahoma," she concluded as congressional lawmakers started to speak over her in the background.

Many social media users pointed to the Colorado Republican's pre-vote spiel as a political stunt.

"Boebert is jeered and heckled when she tries to give a speech instead of just voting," Democratic attorney Ron Filipkowski wrote in a tweet. "Finally, she switches her vote to Kevin [Hern]."

Other Twitter users appeared amazed by Boebert's display.

"Boebert trying to troll McCarthy by starting off like she was going to vote for him and then said Kevin Hern. Wow," tweeted Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic who has written for Wired and Slate.

Reached for comment, Hern's office pointed Newsweek to a statement the congressman gave to The Frontier's Reese Gorman, saying that he's "happy" as the Republican Study Committee's chair.

Asked whether he'd accept the speakership, Hern replied: "If I hear my name, it's something I'll have to think and pray about before deciding if it's a job I'll run for."

Florida congressman and House Freedom Caucus member Matt Gaetz has also refused to back McCarthy. On Thursday afternoon, the Republican instead stood and cast his ballot for "Donald John Trump."

Updated 1/5/2023, 6:00 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hern.