He has inherited a dramatic, not to mention unwieldy, series of political challenges for the House itself, as well as for the fortunes of his G.O.P. caucus.
The House has been without a permanent speaker since Oct. 3. Here is how a new one could be elected, or how the process could go off the rails yet again.
Representative Jim Jordan’s initial defeat left the man once branded a “legislative terrorist” pressing to cut the kind of deals he has long railed against.