In 2022, Democrats employed a midterm strategy that served them well in several key races.  It was simple: bankroll Republican primary candidates whom they felt they could defeat in the election.  It was a high-risk roll of the dice that didn't always work, as J.D. Vance will attest, but it was successful in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and other states.  The end result was a net gain in the Senate and less of a drubbing than expected in the House of Representatives.

Now new legislatures are choosing their leaders for the coming session.  Democrats believe they can play kingmaker in some red states, despite having relatively few elected representatives there.  This time, the strategy is to seize upon any split in the GOP and pick the least conservative Republican to vote for.  In Ohio's legislative election for House speaker, this worked to perfection.  With only 32 members on the Democrat side to 67 Republicans, Dems decided to vote en masse for their choice, GOP state rep. Jason Stephens.  They deny that any "grand deal" was made.

Toledo rep. Derek Merrin was the GOP choice after winning a post-election caucus vote, but those across the aisle felt he was too conservative and preferred someone they could "work with."  Therefore, their 32 votes went for Stephens, who could garner only a third of Republican votes. Final tally: 54-43, Stephens over Merrin.

Thanks to support from House Democrats, Stephens was elected speaker of the Ohio House on Tuesday over the Republicans' overwhelmingly preferred candidate.

This isn't exactly something new for Ohio politicians.  It's the second time in four years that a Republican  underdog can thank Democrats for the title of speaker.  In 2019, Dems gave Larry Householder the votes he needed to unseat Speaker Ryan Smith.  Not that they were very picky about candidate quality: You might remember that Householder was later arrested and charged with overseeing a $60-million bribery scheme.  A premeditated black eye to the GOP?

Now U.S. House rep. Kevin McCarthy is considering working  out a deal with Democrats to land him the position of speaker.  As third in line to the presidency, it's just about as important a position as you can have in government, and he feels that he's due for the title.  A group of Republicans are a hard no to McCarthy's candidacy, though, and several votes have failed to win him the election.

We don't know the details yet, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggests that McCarthy could approach Democrats to gain the votes he needs to become speaker.  In return, he gives concessions to them, such as allowing some Dems to retain chairmanships of certain powerful house committees.  Impossible?  Hopefully, but politics makes strange bedfellows.  Democrats wouldn't even have to vote for McCarthy. They could vote "present" to decrease the number of votes needed to reach a majority.

Lacking a speaker, the House can't move on to the business Republicans were elected to conduct.  Of course, it will be better (much better) if a Republican candidate gets the approval of the entire GOP membership of the House.  There's a lot to do, and time's a-wastin'.

If nothing gives, will the 123rd session of the House of Representatives see a coalition government?  Can Steve Scalise or another candidate gallop in as a dark horse?  Or will the swamp be swampy and reach some other sort of compromise?  Your guess is as good as mine, but too much delay doesn't reflect well on the GOP's ability to govern.  Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Image: Kevin McCarthy.  Credit: World Economic Forum via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.