{"id":363,"date":"2026-06-22T15:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=363"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:18:25","slug":"a-staffers-guide-to-winning-and-losing-the-speakership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=363","title":{"rendered":"A staffer\u2019s guide to winning and losing the speakership\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When John Leganski walked into Kevin McCarthy\u2019s office as an intern in 2012, he\u2019d barely heard of the man who would come to define his political career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But now, Leganski\u2019s something of an expert \u2014 so much so that he could write a book about the former speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGlory, Grief and the Gavel\u201d details what it took to elect the California Republican as speaker after 15 rounds of voting and the fight that ultimately led to his ouster, which Leganski lived as his top floor staffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most congressional aides shy away from the spotlight, and it\u2019s rare for them to publish books about their time on the Hill. The way Leganski sees it, there was a \u201cvoid\u201d to be filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lots of books about campaigns for president,\u201d Leganski said in an interview. \u201cWe don\u2019t really have many, if any, about what it takes to become speaker of the House.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In many ways, it\u2019s a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want a strong Article One, we should have a strong speakership. And so I hope people moving forward realize the gravity of that and are going to be reluctant to go down that path again,\u201d he said of the procedural move that muscled out his boss.<\/p>\n

McCarthy was brought down by what\u2019s known as a motion to vacate, which removes the speaker if the House adopts it, triggering a new election for the job.<\/p>\n

As he courted votes from his Republican colleagues in January 2023, a small but vocal group of holdouts gave him a list of demands, pressuring him to lower the threshold and allow a single member to kick-start that process, leaving him more vulnerable to his right flank. After days of negotiations, McCarthy was elected as the House\u2019s 55th speaker \u2014 but nine months later, the same concession he made to secure the gavel led to his downfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time this has happened in a century. There\u2019s nobody alive the last time this was around for us to talk to,\u201d Leganski said, pointing to a similar but unsuccessful attempt on Speaker Joseph Cannon in 1910.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now a lobbyist at Harbinger Strategies, Leganski has remained close with McCarthy but said he waited to give his former boss a look until he had a \u201creally solid\u201d first draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly was not going to put this out in the world if he did not bless it,\u201d Leganski said. \u201cI told him \u2026 \u2018You\u2019re either going to read this in one night and won\u2019t put it down, or you\u2019re not going to want to turn the page, and you\u2019re going to have PTSD.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No story is complete without a villain, and this is no exception. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz serves as the \u201cchief antagonist\u201d \u2014 unsurprising given McCarthy\u2019s lingering resentment for the man who did the most to take him down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leganski writes that \u201cpersonal vendettas and grievances\u201d motivated the so-called \u201cNever Kevins,\u201d calling the Florida Republican a \u201ctruly disturbing individual\u201d with a \u201ccreepy voice.\u201d He echoes McCarthy\u2019s claim that Gaetz was out for vengeance over a into his alleged sexual conduct with a minor.\u00a0Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

By contrast, firebrand Rep. Chip Roy \u2014 the \u201ctrue center of gravity\u201d of the Freedom Caucus at the time, according to Leganski \u2014\u00a0emerges as an unexpectedly reasonable negotiator.<\/p>\n

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According to Leganski, the Texas Republican took the time to build relationships with floor staff as they circulated in the House chamber \u2014 something he thinks more members should do. As a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, Roy knew \u201ca cheat code for working on the Hill,\u201d Leganski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe floor staff make a lot of things go, helping get bills on the floor, helping organize the calendar and how votes are going to run,\u201d he said, describing them as \u201cone of the best kept secrets\u201d in understanding how Washington works.<\/p>\n

Hope for chaos?<\/h2>\n

The book includes some moments of intrigue, like floor staffers finding and secretly making a copy of a private Freedom Caucus dossier, complete with a list of its closely guarded membership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But readers looking for juicy details about Mike Johnson, who ended up with the gavel in October 2023 after several other candidates got dumped, may want to look elsewhere. While Leganski charts the current speaker\u2019s rise to power, he has no words of blame for the then-seventh-ranking member of House leadership \u2014 or even a review of his job performance.<\/p>\n

In Leganski\u2019s eyes, Johnson wasn\u2019t as random of a pick as the press made him out to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the cover of this book or rewatch the voting from January, you\u2019ll see Kevin seated to my right and then the same member seated to my left each day without fail: Mike Johnson. You know when you have a feeling that someone is peeking over your shoulder? That was how I felt with Mike the entire week, catching him more than once trying to eavesdrop on my conversations with Kevin or sneak a glimpse at some of my incoming text messages,\u201d Leganski writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If nothing else, the book is a tribute to staffers and how they make the Hill run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really did try to write this as, \u2018I\u2019m the narrator, it was me experiencing it,\u2019\u201d said Leganski, who relied on journal entries to jog his memory \u2014 a habit he recommends to other staffers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose big days, whether they\u2019re good and celebratory, or they\u2019re sad, and a down day, or you have a boss win a steering race, or leadership race \u2014 you want to remember that stuff,\u201d he said of why he kept a journal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Would he ever run for Congress himself one day?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hill has changed a bit since Leganski first started in 2012, back when interns weren\u2019t paid and the margins in the House weren\u2019t single-digit slim. But he does have some advice for current staffers looking to climb the ladder.<\/p>\n

\u201cHope for chaos,\u201d he recalls former Vice President Dick Cheney once telling him, implying that turmoil can create an opening for young aides to rush in and advance their careers. His own advice is simpler \u2014 and also sunnier, which seems fitting for a loyal soldier in McCarthy\u2019s \u201chappy warrior\u201d camp.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDo right by your boss, do the best job you can,\u201d Leganski said. \u201cYou give them the best advice, the best counsel you can, and then they make the play call \u2026 and then you go out and execute it. That, I think, is a tried and true way to move up in government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more At the Races: Artificial interference<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When John Leganski walked into Kevin McCarthy\u2019s office as an intern in 2012, he\u2019d barely heard of the man who would come to define his political career.  But now, Leganski\u2019s something of an expert \u2014 so much so that he could write a book about the former speaker.  Which is exactly what he did.  \u201cGlory, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heard-on-the-hill"],"yoast_head":"\nA staffer\u2019s guide to winning and losing the speakership\u00a0 - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=363\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A staffer\u2019s guide to winning and losing the speakership\u00a0 - 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