Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerLongtime House parliamentarian to step down Five things we learned from this year's primaries Bad blood between Pelosi, Meadows complicates coronavirus talks MORE, who plans to leave office a day before Halloween, told a group of Republican colleagues last week he had an awful nightmare.

“I had this terrible nightmare last night that I was trying to get out and I couldn’t get out,” the Ohio Republican joked, according to one of his longtime friends, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “And a hand came reaching, pulling me.”

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But Boehner’s nightmare could become reality if House Republicans fail to rally around their nominee for Speaker in a floor vote set for Oct. 29.

Boehner’s deputy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthyMcCarthy's Democratic challenger to launch first TV ad highlighting Air Force service as single mother Trump asked Chamber of Commerce to reconsider Democratic endorsements: report The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - White House moves closer to Pelosi on virus relief bill MORE (R-Calif.), is expected to win the nomination in a closed-door vote on Thursday. But if he can’t reach 218 votes in the formal floor vote, additional rounds of voting will be held.

And if no other GOP candidate for Speaker can secure 218, Boehner would not resign his post as Speaker.

“If you don’t put up 218, Boehner stays Speaker,” Cole explained, “because his resignation doesn’t take effect until there’s a new Speaker.

“They’ve checked with the parliamentarian about that. ... We will not be without a Speaker."

The last time the Speaker's election went to multiple ballots was 1923, when Rep. Frederick H. Gillett (R-Mass.) required nine ballots on the floor to win the Speaker's gavel, according to The Washington Post.

McCarthy is facing Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz Jason ChaffetzThe myth of the conservative bestseller Elijah Cummings, Democratic chairman and powerful Trump critic, dies at 68 House Oversight panel demands DeVos turn over personal email records MORE (R-Utah) and Rep. Daniel Webster Daniel Alan WebsterGaetz set to endorse primary opponent of fellow Florida GOP lawmaker Former cop Demings faces progressive pushback in veepstakes Overnight Energy: Biden campaign says he would revoke Keystone XL permit | EPA emails reveal talks between Trump officials, chemical group before 2017 settlement | Tensions emerge on Natural Resources panel over virtual meetings MORE (R-Fla.) in the Speaker’s race Thursday. The popular Californian is the clear favorite, but there are doubts he can reach 218 of the 247 total GOP votes on the floor after he suggested on Fox News last week that Republicans created the taxpayer-funded Benghazi committee to harm Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.

It’s a major gaffe that Chaffetz and other opponents have seized on to portray McCarthy as a poor communicator for the party. The GOP leader has since tried to walk back his remarks, insisting that nothing about the panel is political.



“Nobody has disagreed that the current majority leader is short of 218. It’s just the reality,” Chaffetz told reporters this week.

Such a scenario would be a major black eye for House Republicans, so there is good reason to think that the conference will rally around its chosen candidate on the floor.

Still, given the rancorous nature of the current House GOP, a drawn-out process seems possible. Which could lead to a real-life Halloween nightmare for Boehner if he is still the Speaker on Oct. 31.