<P> Although no rule exists, based on tradition and practice from the earliest days of the nation, to be elected speaker a candidate must receive an absolute majority of all votes cast for individuals, i.e. excluding those who abstain . If no candidate wins such a majority, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected . The last time repeated votes were required was in 1923, when the Speaker was elected on the ninth ballot . </P> <P> The new Speaker is then sworn in by the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the chamber's longest - serving member . </P> <P> In modern practice, the Speaker is chosen by the majority party from among its senior leaders either when a vacancy in the office arrives or when the majority party changes . Previous Speakers have been minority leaders (when the majority party changes, as they are already the House party leader, and as the minority leader are usually their party's nominee for Speaker), or majority leaders (upon departure of the current Speaker in the majority party), assuming that the party leadership hierarchy is followed . In the past, other candidates have included chairpersons of influential standing committees . </P> <P> So far, the Democrats have always elevated their minority leader to the speakership upon reclaiming majority control of the House . However, Republicans have not always followed this leadership succession pattern . In 1919, Republicans bypassed James Robert Mann, R - IL, who had been Minority Leader for eight years, and elected a backbencher representative, Frederick H. Gillett, R - MA, to be Speaker . Mann had "angered many Republicans by objecting to their private bills on the floor," and was also a protégé of autocratic Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon (R - IL18) who had been Speaker from 1903 to 1911, and was still in the House . Many members "suspected that he (Mann) would try to re-centralize power in his hands if elected Speaker ." More recently, although Robert H. Michel was Minority Leader in 1994 when the Republicans regained control of the House in the 1994 midterm elections, he had already announced his retirement and had little or no involvement in the campaign, including the "Contract with America", which was unveiled six weeks before Election Day . Michel opted not to seek re-election because he had been isolated in the caucus by Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and other younger and more aggressive Congressmen . </P>

Who gets to be speaker of the house
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