2026 Primary Elections

When Congress is dissolved who has the authority to start swearing in the members of the next one?

Current Practice

Representatives usually take their oath during the first day of a new Congress, when the House organizes itself. After the Speaker is elected, the Member with the longest continuous service (the Dean of the House) administers the oath to the Speaker. This tradition originated in the British House of Commons, and has been the practice in the U.S. House since at least the 1820s (the Oath Act of 1789 did not mandate it). The Speaker, in turn, administers the oath to the rest of the Members en masse. The Speaker or Speaker Pro Tempore must swear in members who miss the mass swearing-in ceremony on the first day afterward; on rare occasions, the House has authorized other Members or local judges to swear-in absent Representatives.

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Oath-of-Office/

Had to look it up.

So a bunch of unsworn in randos elect the Speaker of the House to swear them in and make them Congresspersons able to elect the Speaker of the House.

Makes total sense.

But yeah the first thing a new Congress has to do is elect a Speaker. Nothing can happen until then. Then the swearing in then ‘organizing’ itself (passing a Rules Package).

Regulation 46A.

How those representatives are officially declared before going to Washington is generally from the word of their state governments if I understand it right? Anything technically stopping all those states like Texas from declaring other candidates as the actual winners?

It will probably not surprise you to learn that Republicans, having engineered voter-proof majorities for themselves in many state legislatures, have been working very hard to lay the groundwork for this. Partly by pushing a bizarre doctrine called the Independent State Legislature Theory, and partly by passing a variety of laws giving themselves the power to throw away any election they don't like.

A special election to fill a vacant seat that had been held by Republicans since 1992:


Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips a Texas state Senate seat Trump won by 17 points, CNN projects

And Li'l Johnson's margin will get tighter because the Texas 18th has finally replaced the Democratic rep who died last year.

Easy enough to promise when you stand no chance of winning.



https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mdtirjghnu2h

Good to see Michele Tafoya getting the plastic surgery required of Republican women. She was a good sportscaster for a long time, but the closer she got to retirement to more you say this woman is nuts.

Democrats resoundingly defend red district in Louisiana, denying GOP its first pickup