At 7 a.m. Friday, Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) was undergoing surgery on his right shoulder.
By 2 p.m., he was back on the House floor, casting a ballot for speaker.
Trone’s vote is a microcosm of the chaotic week that has transpired in Washington, D.C., as the 118th Congress attempted to convene on Tuesday but has since been unable to elect a House speaker. Republicans hold a slim majority, but a group of far-right Republicans held up the vote for a dozen ballots, preventing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) from getting the votes needed to become speaker.
Meanwhile, Trone, of Potomac, who represents Maryland’s 6th District—which includes the northern half of Montgomery County—and every other Democrat in the chamber have cast their ballot for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Because of Trone’s surgery, he missed the 12th ballot for speaker on Friday, but returned for the 13th ballot later that day.
“Surgery this morning won’t stop me from getting the job done,” Trone wrote in a tweet from his personal account on Friday. “I’m back at the Capitol and ready to stay here as long as it takes to elect a Speaker and get back to work on behalf of the American people.”