John Leganski, who served as the deputy chief of staff for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), spoke about his upcoming book, Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House, and how the election for Speaker of the House was the “most fascinating” in American politics.
While speaking to host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday, Leganski said the Speaker’s election in which McCarthy participated in 2023 was the “first multi-ballot Speaker’s election in a century,” as well as being the “longest Speaker’s election that the U.S. House had seen since the Civil War.”
“I had a front row seat to all of it, as his floor director and his deputy chief of staff, and so I really wanted to write a book about what the House is like in the modern-era, and what it takes to become Speaker. We’ve had 56 Speakers now, in our history, compared to only 47 presidencies. But, there’s been lots of books written about the presidency,” Leganski said.
Leganski added that there was “relatively little scholarship about what it takes to become Speaker.”
“It’s the most fascinating election in American politics. You only need 218 votes to be elected to the post — the third highest in the land. All the votes are very personal, all the votes are very personality-driven, emotional.”
“Kevin obviously had a fight in 2023, but I go through the fight in 2015, where we ran and ultimately came up short. The fight in 2023 where we were able to get over the top, and all the back-and-forth with our members during that week.”
When asked what Leganski’s advice would be to current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and “the team that’s there” about what Republicans can do to “hold” and expand their majority, Leganski spoke about how he feels Republicans will hold the majority in the House partly “because of the re-districting push.”
“I think Republicans are going to hold the House and defy history. Part of that is because of the re-districting push. I know there’s been a lot of hand-wringing over that, and sure it’s been a fight and messy in some areas, and member on member violence is never something you want to see as a leader in Congress. My estimates show that we can net eight seats from re-districting alone.”
Leganski continued to advise Republican leadership to “trust” their candidates and pour resources into them, and not give an inch to the Democrats.
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