FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, January 8, 2023 [1. Kevin McCarthy’s Job Just Got Harder]( [McCarthy elected US House speaker on 15th round of voting]( If Rep. Kevin McCarthy didn’t have a lucky number before, it’s surely 15 now. Just after midnight on Saturday morning, the House of Representatives finally voted to make McCarthy speaker of the House on the 15th ballot — the resolution of an historic, multi-day staredown with conservative hardliners who will now wield tremendous power in the House. [Read more]( [2. Kevin McCarthy Doesn’t Have Enough Fans Inside The House … Or Outside It]( [POLLA_0106-4×3]( Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. [Read more]( [3. The Bruins Are Unbeatable, The Panthers Are Floundering, And Ageless Ovechkin Can’t Stop Scoring]( [NHLSURPRISES-4X3]( The holidays are over, and so is roughly half of the NHL’s 2022-23 regular-season schedule. That means it’s time to take stock of a season that has been decidedly less predictable than last year’s top-heavy campaign so far. Some things about the season aren’t shocking at all, of course — like the tankfest currently unfolding to earn the draft rights to mega-prospect Connor Bedard. But here are the six storylines that have surprised us the most in the early stages of the season: [Read more]( [4. Georgia Is A Clear Title Favorite — But The Odds Haven’t Mattered To TCU Yet]( [cfp-4×3]( In the tightest pair of semifinals in the history of the College Football Playoff, both the biggest favorite and the biggest long shot in the field advanced. Contrast, then, might be an appropriate descriptor for the national final between the TCU Horned Frogs and Georgia Bulldogs at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Monday. [Read more]( [5. 3 Questions We Have About George Santos]( [TOPSHOT-US-GOVERNMENT-CONGRESS-118]( Before the revelations, George Santos was the type of fresh face the Republican Party would have put front and center. The representative-elect is Latino, openly gay and just 34 years old. And by winning the election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District last year, he appeared to have cracked the code to succeeding as a Republican on Democratic-leaning turf. [Read more]( [6. What The 20 Republicans Who Voted Against Kevin McCarthy Have In Common]( [House And Senate Convene For The 118th Congress On Capitol Hill]( The 20 Republicans who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House had something in common before Tuesday’s drama: They are very conservative and scorn the Republican Party establishment.As you probably know by now, the 118th Congress began on Tuesday, and the election for speaker of the House — usually a mere formality — failed to produce a first-ballot winner for the first time since 1923. McCarthy needed a majority of the votes cast — in this case, 218. Since the GOP’s majority in the new House is just 222 members compared with the Democrats’ 212, McCarthy could afford only four defections from within the Republican caucus (assuming all Democrats voted against him). Last month, we identified six Republicans who had publicly come out against McCarthy, so we had an inkling that this vote would be tight. But then, on the House floor on Tuesday, a whopping 19 Republicans voted against McCarthy on the first and second ballots. And then Rep.-elect Byron Donalds joined them on the third ballot to make an even 20. [Read more]( [7. Nikola Jokić’s MVP Case Is Hidden In Plain Sight (Again)]( [JOVIC-4X3]( Nikola Jokić has a tendency to make the spectacular look mundane. Take this play during the third quarter of a recent game against the Boston Celtics, just one of the 40,904 passes he’s slung as a member of the Denver Nuggets. With a running start near the top of the key, Jokić took one brisk dribble into the paint, left his feet, twirled and fired a short overhead feed to a cutting Michael Porter Jr., who scored through contact to extend the Denver lead to 13. [Read more]( [8. NFL Leadership Wasn’t Prepared For Damar Hamlin’s Injury]( [Buffalo Bills v Cincinnati Bengals]( maya (Maya Sweedler, editor): Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is still in critical but stable condition after going into cardiac arrest during a game in Cincinnati Monday night. That much we know. As of this writing, we do not know what caused the cardiac event; what his current status is; and whether or how the game will be made up, though the NFL did confirm that the Bills-Bengals game would not be resumed this week. His family released a statement earlier this morning thanking people for their support and said it would release updates once possible. [Read more]( [9. Why ‘Kidfluencers’ Have So Few Protections — Even As Americans Support Regulating The Industry]( [Nickelodeon’s JoJo Siwa celebrates 14th birthday at Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas]( “Kidfluencers” — children whose social media presence is followed and monetized — are a notable part of the growing business of social media. But this industry lacks protections for the children whose personalities and poses rake in an ever-growing amount of clicks and dollars. [Read more]( [10. How Biden Could Appoint More Judges Than Trump]( [MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images]( Democrats now have a slightly bigger Senate majority but not much to do with it. And so, it’s time for more judges. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: The Politics Of Prosecuting Trump]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.