John Boehner: The next speaker

Republicans have chosen Boehner to lead the House of Representatives. Who is he, and how will will he exert his influence?

John Boehner was entrepreneurial from the start, reportedly rising before the sun to deliver weekend papers when he was a boy in Ohio.
(Image credit: Getty)

Where is Boehner from?

He grew up in Reading, Ohio, the second of 12 children in a working-class Catholic family. His father ran a tavern where Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) did chores. The family had little money—the whole brood shared a single bathroom—but Boehner was industrious at an early age, waking up in darkness to deliver Sunday papers and still make it to early morning Mass. “I went to high school and met a bunch of guys from other parts of town who were clearly a lot more affluent than what I grew up in,” he recalled, “and it just opened my eyes that there was just more out there.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us