By Ben Jenkins, Podcast Manager 

Last week, former Speaker of the House and Xavier alum John Boehner returned to campus to speak at the “The Speaker is in the House” event hosted by Xavier College Republicans. 

Boehner spoke about his path from growing up in Cincinnati to eventually become the Speaker of the House. He was born and raised in Reading, OH, just 15 minutes away from campus. 

He spoke a lot about his childhood, being one of 12 kids, his experience working in his grandfather’s bar and his time at Archbishop Moeller High School. He then touched on how he ended up at Xavier. 

After just one semester at the University of Cincinnati, he dropped out and worked full time while refereeing basketball games on the side. It was another referee who pushed him towards Xavier. 

He enrolled at Xavier in 1971, where he took mostly night classes and worked during the day to pay for his tuition. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in business administration, which later helped him become the president of Nucite Sales, a plastics and packaging company. 

He spoke on the slightly unorthodox beginning to his political career. He became involved in his local homeowners association. This then led him to run for the township board of trustees in 1981. 

After three years as a board of trustees member, Boehner ran for the Ohio House of Representatives in 1984, an election in which he won. 

He was a member of the Ohio House for five years, and during this time he continued to manage his packaging company. It was in 1990 that Boehner took the leap and ran for the U.S House in Ohio’s eighth district. 

He won the election in 1990, and officially joined the House in 1991, where he served for 25 years. Early into his time in Congress, he made a name for himself by exposing the House Bank Scandal. 

This helped him become the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Boehner was able to achieve while the House helped him move up the ranks of the Republican party. When they regained the House majority in 2010, he was a very popular candidate to win the Speaker of the House election. 

Boehner won that race and became the Speaker of the House in Jan. 2011. This came in spite of many Republicans denouncing him due to his more central views. 

Boehner spoke on his favorite achievement as the Speaker, when he was able to bring in Pope Francis to speak to a joint session of Congress. He explained how he repeatedly reached out to the pope over his time in the House, but he always felt as if it was an uphill battle. 

In September of 2015, Pope Francis became the first pope to address Congress. He touched on how much this moment meant to him because of his Catholic faith and the many years of planning it took to make it happen. 

The Boehner event was seen as a major success by College Republican leadership. “The event went perfectly,” senior Philosophy, Politics, and the Public major and Xavier College Republicans Vice President Nick Watts said. “We drove a large turnout to a professional event where we hosted a government official that was formerly second in line to the U.S. presidency.” 

It was a very big moment for the leadership to have a former Speaker of the House at a Xavier College Republicans event. 

“Listening to Speaker Boehner delve into topics such as his time as a Xavier student, his deep Catholic faith and his tenure as Speaker of the U.S. The House of Representatives was a full circle moment for me as I enter my final year at the school,” senior Philosophy, Politics, and the Public and Xavier College Republicans President Josiah Neumann said. 

Boehner’s return gave students the opportunity to hear firsthand how his path from Xavier eventually led him to one of the highest positions in the national government.