Shortest tenures as Speaker
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy has now officially had the third shortest tenure as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The two that were shorter are worth a quick note:
Theodore M. Pomeroy served a single day as Speaker on March 3, 1869 on his last day in the House of Representative. His Speakership was a departing honor to a well respected colleague and filled a one day gap after the prior Speaker, Schuyler Colfax, resigned to be sworn in as Vice President and before the new Congress was sworn in.
Pomeroy’s family and Harriet Tubman were friends and neighbors in Auburn, NY after the Civil War. When Pomeroy died as a widower in 1905, Tubman would place flowers on his casket that he was buried with.
One of Pomeroy’s granddaughters married John Foster Dulles, who was Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration. Famous photographer Josephine Herrick, another of Pomeroy’s granddaughters, would serve as one of the official government photographers on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs.
The Speaker who served more time than Pomeroy and less than McCarthy had his Speakership cut short when he died in office.
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