<P> Another, more prolonged fight occurred in 1855 in the 34th United States Congress . The old Whig Party had collapsed but no single party had emerged to replace it . Candidates opposing the Democrats had run under a bewildering variety of labels, including Whig, Republican, American (Know Nothing), and simply "Opposition". By the time Congress actually met in December 1855, most of the northerners were concentrated together as Republicans, while most of the southerners and a few northerners used the American or Know Nothing label . Opponents of the Democrats held a majority in House, with the party makeup of the 234 Representatives being 83 Democrats, 108 Republicans, and 43 Know Nothings (primarily southern oppositionists). The Democratic minority nominated William Alexander Richardson of Illinois as Speaker, but because of sectional distrust, the various oppositionists were unable to agree on a single candidate for Speaker . The Republicans supported Nathaniel Prentiss Banks of Massachusetts, who had been elected as a Know Nothing but was now largely identified with the Republicans . The southern Know Nothings supported first Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky, and then Henry M. Fuller of Pennsylvania . The voting went on for almost two months with no candidate able to secure a majority, until it was finally agreed to elect the Speaker by plurality vote, and Banks was elected . The House found itself in a similar dilemma when the 36th Congress met in December 1859 . Although the Republicans held a plurality, the Republican candidate, John Sherman, was unacceptable to southern oppositionists due to his anti-slavery views, and once again the House was unable to elect a Speaker for several months . After Democrats allied with southern oppositionists to nearly elect the North Carolina oppositionist William N.H. Smith, Sherman finally withdrew in favor of compromise candidate William Pennington of New Jersey, a former Whig of unclear partisan loyalties, who was finally elected Speaker at the end of January 1860 . </P> <P> The last speakership elections in which the House had to vote more than once occurred in the 65th and 72nd United States Congress . In 1917, neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidate could attain a majority because three members of the Progressive Party and other individual members of other parties voted for their own party . The Republicans had a plurality in the House but James "Champ" Clark remained Speaker of the House because of the support of the Progressive Party members . In 1931, both the Republicans and the Democrats had 217 members with the Minnesota Farmer - Labor Party having one member who served as the deciding vote . The Farmer - Labor Party eventually voted for the Democrats' candidate for Speaker, John Nance Garner, who later became Vice President under Franklin Roosevelt . </P> <P> In 1997, several Republican congressional leaders tried to force Speaker Newt Gingrich to resign . However, Gingrich refused since that would have required a new election for Speaker, which could have led to Democrats along with dissenting Republicans voting for Democrat Dick Gephardt (then Minority Leader) as Speaker . After the 1998 midterm elections where the Republicans lost seats, Gingrich did not stand for re-election . The next two figures in the House Republican leadership hierarchy, Majority Leader Richard Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, chose not to run for the office . The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Bob Livingston, declared his bid for the speakership, which was unopposed, making him Speaker - designate . It was then revealed, by Livingston himself, who had been publicly critical of President Bill Clinton's perjury during his sexual harassment trial, that he had engaged in an extramarital affair . He opted to resign from the House, despite being urged to stay on by House Democratic leader Gephardt . Subsequently, chief deputy whip Dennis Hastert was selected as Speaker . The Republicans retained their majorities in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections . </P> <P> The Democrats won a majority of seats in the 2006 midterm elections . On November 16, 2006, Nancy Pelosi, who was then Minority Leader, was selected as Speaker - designate by House Democrats . When the 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007, she was elected as the 52nd Speaker by a vote of 233 - 202, becoming the first woman elected Speaker of the House . Pelosi remained Speaker through the 111th Congress . For the 112th Congress, Republican John Boehner was unanimously designated Speaker - designate by House Republicans and was elected the 53rd Speaker of the House . As a show of dissent, nineteen Democratic representatives voted for Democrats other than Pelosi, who had been chosen as House Minority Leader and the Democrats' candidate for Speaker . </P>

Which office is second in authority in the house of representatives