WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – There is a power vacuum in Washington D.C. tonight now that there is no official Speaker of the House with the ousting of Kevin McCarthy. The historical vacancy has many of us asking questions like what’s next?

“I think it puts Republicans in the House of Representatives in a challenging position, and that is finding a speaker that their entire conference can rally around.” says Baylor Political Science Professor Patrick Flavin.

While this caught many by surprise, the writing may have been on the wall since he won the leadership role.

“I think that is what triggered the current situation, is that Speaker McCarthy made a deal with the Democrats in order to garner enough votes to pass the C.R., the continuing resolution,” says Christopher DeCluitt Vice Chair of the McLennan County Republican Party.

The precursor to this historical event dates back to January when it took 15 ballots for Congressman Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker of the House. It came with a provision that allowed a single member of the House to trigger the process to remove him from the leadership role. Just 9 months later, the Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz put the motion on the floor.

“Everything is obviously ground to a halt, even though there is a speaker pro tem in place. It’s going to have the members of Congress at each other’s throats. And there’s a great deal of infighting going on and fighting with the Democrats. So it’s utter chaos.” says DeCluitt.