On January 26, 1965, Kevin McCarthy was born. As the youngest of three boys, McCarthy grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in central California. After graduating high school and community college, he spent his time fixing cars and reselling them in Los Angeles. He used this money to run a deli. After winning a few thousand dollars on a lottery ticket, he invested his money in his business and the stock market. He sold his business to return to college. 

During college, he became a staff member of Republican Congressman Bill Thomas. This peaked his political interests. He was elected to the California Assembly in 2002, as well as becoming California’s Republican Minority Leader. 

With Thomas’ retirement approaching in 2006, McCarthy was elected to his Republican position in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2009, McCarthy was elected to become the House’s Republican Majority Whip.

McCarthy became the Speaker of the House in January of 2023. McCarthy was removed in a 216-210 vote after his wrongful use of a parliamentary procedure. He announced that he will not be running again for Speaker of the House. 

After his ousting, Mike Johnson ran to take McCarthy’s seat in the house. He was born on January 30, 1972, in Shreveport, Louisiana. He is the oldest of four siblings. Before his time in Congress, he spent his time on religious freedom and issues of denying same-sex marriage. Johnson may best be known as a supporter of Trump, telling him to “keep fighting” in 2020, which gained the attention of a lot of Americans at the time. Johnson has served four terms in Congress to date. In 2022, Johnson was elected to serve as the Vice Chairman of House Republicans. 

After Johnson’s second run for Speaker of the House, he was  elected as the new Speaker of the House in a 220-209 vote against Hakeem Jefferies, the House Minority Leader. As the new speaker, Johnson now has to figure out some sort of legislation to fund the government by November 17th. He must address this issue in order to prevent a government shutdown. 

During a shutdown, government employees are not paid until the shutdown is ended by Congress. This can cause many agitations in many government funded places like banks, airports, parks, museums, offices, etc. Representatives are hoping that he will keep his promises to keep the house running and functioning.