In November of 2022, Congress began elections for a new House of Representatives at the Capitol. This past election saw a significant shift in the amount of younger Representatives elected and an increase in the ratio of Republicans to Democrats. The increase in younger generations in the House brings a lot of change to the decisions that will be made in the future. It’s possible that younger voters could appeal more to the ideas of the younger representatives in the House. The shift in Republicans taking over the House could possibly impact the 2024 presidential election since they could try to influence voters to vote for a Republican candidate. These notable changes impact the future of ERHS students because most students are close to the voting age and should consider using their voices to elect people that can represent this country well. 

It was shown that there are a lot more younger representatives now in the House. According to “Pewresearch.org”, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z generations have around 219 House members, while the Boomers and Silent generations only have about 215 members. There has been over a 50% decrease in the number of older representatives in the House over the last 5 years. While the House has more younger representatives, the Senate still has a lot of older representatives.

Many new changes have been brought to the House, especially with a lot more younger representatives. This could potentially be a good thing because now there are more representatives in our generation and they are more likely to understand our views and thoughts on how certain things should be done and positively impact the progression of this country. This is a big step for the future of the U.S. Congress and great news for any students of ERHS that may hope to work in the House or Senate one day. Our votes shape the future of this country so you should heavily consider voting.  

The election that took the longest to conclude was the one for House Speaker. The Speaker of the House is a political leader position where they speak on behalf of the majority of the House. Nancy Pelosi, an American politician, served as the 52nd Democratic Speaker of the House from the years 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. She was the first female to serve as the House Speaker and finally decided to step down from her position after around 10 years in total.

The 2023 House Speaker election was mainly between Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Kevin McCarthy. There is a rule that there has to be exactly 218 votes to determine what the majority of the House wants. Because of this, it took around 5 days and 15 ballot votes to finally get a winner. Though Hakeem Jeffries had more votes for most of the elections, he never got to 218 votes, so Kevin McCarthy ended up winning after 15 tries. The final votes were 218-209. This is an example of how just one vote could completely change the outcome of an election. Though it may seem small, putting in your vote for any election could have a great impact on the results.