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By Genevieve Wood
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John Boehner won the job as speaker of the House for the new 114th Congress by surviving the most divisive speaker election in more than 100 years. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service looking at House speaker races from 1913 to 2013, no other speaker has experienced the level of disapproval from his own ranks that Boehner has.
To be elected speaker, one needs to get only a majority of the votes cast, not necessarily a majority of the full membership of the House. That is because some members may be absent or simply vote "present." However, since 1913, a speaker has been elected only four times without the vote of the majority of the full membership (218):
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