ST. LOUIS–Former Illinois Congressman John Shimkus spent 24 years representing parts of the Metro East in Washington, D.C. between 1997 and 2021. Wednesday night, he happened to be catching a flight back to St. Louis from the nation’s capital.

Some people recognized him on the trip, shaking their heads in wonder about the present state of affairs, as lawmakers have now failed over three days and as of early Thursday afternoon, eleven attempts to elect a new House Speaker. Republicans hold a 222-212 majority, but a group of roughly 20 members, has thus far thwarted Rep.-Elect Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid to assume the mantle. It’s the first time in 100 years that a speaker hasn’t been elected on the first vote.

The only holdout in the St. Louis area delegation is Rep.-Elect Mary Miller, who succeeded Shimkus in the 117th Congress. Thanks to redistricting, Shimkus’ hometown of Collinsville now sits in the new 13th district, home to Rep.-Elect Nikki Budzinski D-Ill.. 

Shimkus wouldn’t comment on Miller specifically, but in a phone interview Thursday described the group of Freedom Caucus members who have brought the process of electing a Speaker to its knees as “extortionists.”

A Miller spokeswoman has not returned messages seeking comment. Wednesday night she shared a Truth Social post from former President Donald Trump. Trump has backed McCarthy’s bid, but his post Wednesday did not mention McCarthy by name.

Press leaks suggest that opponents are looking for things like commitments on spending cuts to committee appointments and chairs. Shimkus, now a part-time grade school administrator at Holy Cross Lutheran in Collinsville in addition to his work at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, thinks the drama is the result of personal bad blood between Freedom Caucus members and McCarthy.

“It seems so childish and so petty. Here I am at a grade school. I think we have better behaved kids right now than we have on the floor of the House,” he joked.

“What’s frustrating from the outside observers is you really have to govern. That’s why you run for office, is to govern… but this all or nothing by both extremes whether it’s the Freedom Caucus on our extreme or the progressive socialists on the liberal end, the all or nothing is not how you govern, in fact we wouldn’t have a government,” he said. 

While some compromise will be needed to get a resolution, Shimkus says McCarthy risks losing his own supporters if he angers rank-and-file members or those who could end up getting passed over for prime committee chairs or assignments in favor of one of the Freedom Caucus members. 

It also isn’t clear that an alternative pick would be able to avoid making the same sort of concessions to reach 218 votes.

Shimkus doesn’t expect a compromise that would essentially result in power-sharing with Democrats. But he doesn’t think McCarthy will end up Speaker.

“He’s going to go down fighting….I’m not sure he can get over the line. He’s gonna have to say for the good of the country we need to find someone else which is a really hard thing to do but the writing’s on the wall.”

While the Freedom Caucus holdouts have downplayed the length of the delay, Shimkus estimates that these few days have set back conservative legislative efforts anywhere between six weeks to two months.

“They’re wasting valuable time to not only move legislation or block legislation but also meet the needs of constituents in their district.”

Members still haven’t been sworn in, their staff members aren’t getting paid and offices aren’t up and running.

“I came here because I really consider myself a workhorse not a show horse,” Budzinski told Spectrum News Wednesday. I’m anxious to get to the work of the issues that are really going to help working people in the communities throughout the 13th district so what feels now like a stalemate–I just took my sixth vote to elect a speaker–I’m anxious to have a speaker so I can officially be sworn in and get to the work of it.”

Her fellow Democrat, Rep.-Elect Cori Bush D-Mo. offered a light-hearted suggestion Wednesday.

“Because we’re the ones actually standing firm, we’re showing how to govern, we're showing how to move forward and so really, the Republicans should just hand it back to the Democrats,” she said.