Why he was ever elected the first time is anyone’s guess.
good question, and more surprising he was re-elected last time.
He knocked out a GOP congressman named Donald “Buz” Lukens who was involved in a sex scandal with a young girl, who may have been as young as 13 when he started “doing” her.
Boehner was in the Ohio House of Representatives at the time (1990). Boehner challenged Lukens in the primary and beat him. Winning the primary was tantamount to winning the general.
Once in Congress, Boehner became a member of the so-called “Gang of Seven” (along with six members who are no longer in Congress) who broke the House Bank scandal, and kept going to the floor during special orders speeches to bring out details and to denounce it (this had a lot to do with the GOP winning both houses of Congress in 1994).
Boehner made his great leap to power in early 2006 when he knocked off the establishment choice, Roy Blunt (now a senator from Missouri), for majority leader (replacing Tom DeLay) (Denny Hastert was the Speaker at the time). Boehner became the leader of the GOP after Hastert declined to run for minority leader in the 110th Congress (2007-09).