2 of 3 Republicans want the next House speaker to come from outside Congress

Guests at a campaign rally for Rick Santorum.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

last updated 22 October 2015

It's a little-known fact that the speaker of the House of Representatives does not have to be a member of Congress. While the House has never elected an outside speaker, the Constitution simply requires that the House "shall chuse [sic] their Speaker," whomever that might be.

But for the upcoming election of outgoing Speaker John Boehner's replacement (currently expected to be Rep. Paul Ryan), a new poll finds that 64 percent of Republicans — and 74 percent of independent voters — would prefer the next speaker be selected from outside Congress. Democrats were less enthusiastic about the idea, but 40 percent were on board.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.