Chris Cillizza reminds us that there an unelected route for Trump to be the next in line after Vice President Harris in the line of succession for the presidency in his CNN article Donald Trump for ... speaker of the House?
There has been talk of Trump running for the House of Representatives in 2022 in Florida since they have a new seat and DeSantis could create a district for him. If he won that seat and the Republicans won the House he could easily challenge and defeat Kevin McCarthy for the position of Speaker. However, there’s a little known or discussed fact that Cillizza points out (bold added).
But before we foreclose the idea of House Speaker Donald Trump in 2023, let me remind you that the speaker does not have to be an elected member of Congress. It can be anyone who a majority of House members choose.
Could that person be Trump? Probably not. OK, almost certainly not. But let's remember this is a guy who thinks
he might be reinstated as president this summer. There's nothing -- and I mean nothing -- so outlandish that he wouldn't at least consider it.
But the notion Cillizza considers in his second paragraph about it being not so outlandish that Trump wouldn’t consider it doesn’t make the connection between this and what he wrote in the paragraph preceding it.
Why would Trump even bother running for the House when he could throw his support to all the other Republican candidates he considers loyal to him and just hope the GOP wins back the House?
Just the facts:
“To be elected Speaker, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast, which may be less than a majority of the full membership of the House because of vacancies, absentees, or Members voting “present.” Although the major parties nominate candidates for the position of Speaker, there is no limitation on for whom Members may vote. In fact, there is no requirement that the Speaker be a Member of the House.”
For example, in the election of the Speaker at the beginning of the 105th Congress (1997-1998), two former Members of the House (Robert H. Michel and Robert Walker) each received one vote. Congressional Record, vol. 143 (January 7, 1997), p. 117. In the 113th Congress (2013-2014), four Members cast votes for one of three individuals who were not Members of the House at the time: a former Member of the House (Allen West), a former U.S. Secretary of State (Colin Powell), and a former Comptroller General of the United States (David Walker). At the start of the 114th Congress (2015-2016), three individuals who were not Members of the House each received one vote for Speaker. Colin Powell again received a vote; two sitting Senators (Rand Paul and Jeff Sessions) also each received one vote. In the October 2015 election, Colin Powell received one vote.
Reference.
This is yet another reason why the Democrats absolutely must maintain control of the House and gain seats in the Senate in 2022.