The vote for speaker of the House is complete. John Boehner received 216 votes; Nancy Pelosi 164, Daniel Webster 12, Louie Gohmert 3, Ted Yoho 2, Jim Jordan 2, Jim Cooper 1, Peter DeFazio 1, Jeff Duncan 1, Trey Gowdy 1, John Lewis 1, Kevin McCarthy 1, Rand Paul 1, Jeff Sessions 1, Colin Powell 1.
I count 408 votes cast, so Boehner needed 205 Republicans to vote for him.
Boehner opponents will tout the fact that they had 24 Republicans voting for a non-Boehner option. One member voted present. (Neither a “present” vote nor a member refusing to vote adds to the total for calculating who got a majority of the votes cast.) A significant number of Democratic members from New York missed the vote to attend the funeral of former governor Mario Cuomo.
If you’re genuinely surprised Boehner won the support of so many of his colleagues, remember that he raised $102 million in the past cycle to help elect House Republicans. He was there for many of them; undoubtedly many of them felt they should be there for him.
“Orange you glad I won?”