Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives A. Halleck who became Republican House leader and Minority Leader from 1959 to 1965, Hale Boggs who died in a plane crash, and Dick Gephardt who became the Democrats' House leader but as Minority Leader since his party lost control in the 1994 midterm elections. Since 1995, the only Majority Leader to become Speaker is John Boehner, though indirectly as his party lost control in the 2006 midterms elections. He subsequently served as Republican House leader and Minority Leader from 2007 to 2011 and then was elected Speaker when the House reconvened in 2011. In 1998, with Speaker Newt Gingrich
October 2015 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives, and is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the United States Senate. Though the Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected member of the House of Representatives, every Speaker to date has been elected from House membership. The 435 members of the House of Representatives elect a Speaker by majority rule at the beginning of each session of the United States Congress, who serves until the end of