Wisconsin's Glenn Grothman has become one of the most prolific House floor speakers

WASHINGTON – After nearly 10 years on Capitol Hill, Wisconsin's Glenn Grothman has found the place where he is perhaps most comfortable: the House floor.

The Glenbeulah Republican can frequently be seen walking around the well of the chamber or standing near the railing behind the House’s eight semicircle rows of brown chairs when Congress is in session. And he tends to be there after the House has already concluded the day’s business.

Usually, he’s waiting to deliver a speech.

Grothman, in fact, delivers more floor speeches than nearly any other House member. Last Congress, he ranked first for number of “special order” speeches delivered and in the top 10 for one-minute speeches — remarks typically given at the end of the day on a topic of a lawmaker’s choosing. He’s continued that trend so far this Congress.

The floor speeches have become Grothman’s way to connect with his constituents and the public about issues he thinks do not receive enough attention in the news media. He frequently delivers his remarks on what he calls “the great issues of the day” to a C-SPAN camera in a mostly empty chamber. But he insists his efforts are not futile.

“People listen to them. Don’t kid yourself,” Grothman recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Just cause they’re not in the room, people are listening to them in their offices… or congressional staff, or some people listen to them at home.”

So just what does Grothman find important?

His speeches are wide-ranging and have covered everything from touting the benefits of Vitamin D to fight the effects of the COVID-19 virus to pushing back against diversity and inclusion programs and what he’s called “an obsession with race in our military.”

During one general speech last July, Grothman began by saying he had “a few issues” that ought to be “brought to the attention of the news media to help them with articles that would educate the American public a little bit on issues of importance.”

He then delivered 29 minutes of remarks in which he pondered the possibility of reaching a settlement in the war between Ukraine and Russia, speculated without evidence that there are more transgender people now than 30 years ago because “it is presented favorably as a lifestyle for a lot of young people,” lamented the “break down” of the nuclear family and railed against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at universities.

More recently, Grothman has keyed in on the U.S.-Mexico border in his speeches as Congress is at an impasse over a border security deal that would unlock Republican support for aid to Ukraine. “From what I saw down there, this should be the No. 1 issue this body tackles in January,” Grothman said of the border during a one-minute speech last month.

2021 remark drew reaction from rapper Cardi B

Grothman’s remarks often attract little public attention, though he can occasionally make headlines. After the Grammy Awards in 2021, for example, Grothman drew criticism from the rapper Cardi B when he said in a floor speech that her performance at the show was “inconsistent with basic decency” as he called on the Federal Communications Commission to take action.

"This gets me so mad ya don’t even know!" the rapper responded in a tweet to millions of followers. "I think we all been on the edge this week since we seen police brutality back to back including watching one of the biggest case in history go down DUE to police brutality but wait ! This is wat state representative decide to talk about."

Still, Grothman has been increasingly active on the House floor over the years. He began devoting more time to floor speeches during the 116th Congress from 2019-2021, delivering the 3rd most special order speeches (27) and ranking 30th for days spent on the floor (59), according to C-SPAN’s Congressional Chronicle.

By the end of the 117th Congress, Grothman had given the most special order speeches (38) over that two-year period, the 7th most one-minute speeches and spent 120 days on the floor — the fifth most in the House. He spent 13 total hours speaking on the floor

He’s continued the upward trend in the current Congress, which began in January 2023. By early February this year, C-SPAN’s records indicate, he’d spent 65 separate days on the floor and spoken for at least 10 hours.

The practice of delivering speeches to a mostly empty chamber is not new, and such remarks have been broadcast to the public since C-SPAN first began streaming live action on the House floor to about 3.5 million households in 1979.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who entered Congress about the time C-SPAN began its live coverage, has been credited with being among the first to take advantage of the special order speeches. Gingrich often attacked Democrats in his remarks to the empty chamber, knowing he’d reach far more people through the camera.

Today, leadership in both parties encourages members to spend time speaking on the floor.

Republicans have a formal competition to incentivize their members to give speeches run by the conference’s vice chair. Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson ran it before he was elected speaker in late October, and the contest is aimed at maximizing GOP messaging.

Utah Rep. Blake Moore, the GOP conference’s new vice chair, told the Journal Sentinel that the competition is run on a quarterly basis (the current one runs through mid-March), and takes into consideration criteria like how often a member speaks, how often a member shares a certain message or how many hits a social media post gets.

Prizes can vary, but Moore joked that he wanted to center them around the Winter Olympics — handing out gold medals to the winners.

“It’s just to make it fun, encourage members to come down, share a message,” Moore said.

Democrats have their own quarterly competition led by the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

Members earn points by giving one- and five-minute speeches and sharing them on social media, according to a Feb. 6 email from the DPCC to House Democratic offices. Members who accumulate 64 points receive the John Lewis Award, named in honor of the late Georgia lawmaker, along with a plaque.

Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, won the first competition of the year.

Grothman, for his part, insisted he does not participate in the competitions, but he did acknowledge he came in second at one point last year. “If I win,” he said, “I’ll sneak up on them.”

The efficacy of getting a message out through floor speeches to an empty chamber is difficult to determine. It’s hard to believe many people spend their days watching tedious floor proceedings on C-SPAN, though a 2023 Ipsos survey found that 39 million Americans access C-SPAN weekly.

But members like Grothman are convinced it’s worth their while.

“I’ll give a speech, I get back home, my office says, ‘Hey you got a call saying great speech.’ So people are listening to them,” Grothman told the Journal Sentinel.

Before the House adjourned one recent day in early February, Grothman stood at a lectern facing the speaker’s rostrum for a general 30-minute speech.

“A week ago, I stood at this microphone and talked about five stories that I think the mainstream press has left uncovered or undercovered,” he began.

“I don’t think these issues have been adequately covered, and one more time I’d just like to touch upon what I believe are five key issues that have been in the news but undercovered by the press.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Glenn Grothman is one of the most prolific House floor speakers