House GOP divided before speaker vote as McCarthy advises allies against nominating him.
The Race for Speaker of the House: Divisions and Contenders
The House Republican Conference is gearing up for an exciting speaker candidate forum on Tuesday. However, the members remain divided, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is now discouraging allies from adding him to the mix.
Two lawmakers have emerged as the top contenders for the position: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Both candidates have been actively meeting with different caucuses and delegations, passionately making their case as to why they should be the next speaker.
Endorsements and Uncertainty
Jordan currently leads in public endorsements over Scalise, but there is still a majority of members who have either not publicly endorsed either candidate or say they have not yet made up their minds.
“It’s time that we make a selection and get back to governing,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) said. “Both [Scalise and Jordan], I think, could get us there.”
As it stands, whoever receives a simple majority in the party’s conference meeting on Wednesday will become the GOP nominee. However, more than 90 Republicans are trying to change the rules, complicating the process. They want any one candidate to receive 217 votes in the meeting to become the conference’s nominee, aiming to avoid a floor fight similar to the one in January that eventually ended in McCarthy’s speakership.
“I don’t want to go to the floor with 15 rounds,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said. “I guess [McCarthy] thought it put pressure on those folks to conform, and then all it did was put them into the international spotlight, and they stayed longer. So, I would hope that we can get it all resolved.”
The Candidate Forum and the Path to Speaker
The candidate forum scheduled for Tuesday should help members solidify their support for a particular candidate. It is expected that the proposed rule change will also be discussed during the forum, addressing its implications for the conference moving forward.
“I want to remind my colleagues that until we elect a speaker, we’re going to have all the rules we want. We can change every rule that we want. But until we elect the speaker, nothing can happen,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who has endorsed Scalise.
Currently, neither of the two candidates has the 217 votes necessary to become speaker on the floor under the revised rules. This has led to increased complexity and uncertainty in the race.
“The race for speaker of the House has become increasingly more complicated in the last week,” one GOP aide told the Washington Examiner. “Jim Jordan may be the darling of the far right, but he stands no chance courting moderates. As of now, Steve Scalise doesn’t have a clear path to 218.”
There is even a possibility that the next speaker of the House will be someone whose last name isn’t McCarthy, Jordan, or Scalise, according to an aide.
Infighting and Legislative Deadlines
All this infighting within the Republican Conference is happening just weeks before the government is set to run out of money on Nov. 17, as well as a call for aid after war broke out in Israel over the weekend. Until there is a speaker, Congress can’t conduct legislative business, leaving lawmakers with a tight deadline to advance their appropriations bills.
Lawmakers expect appropriations to be a topic of conversation during the candidate forum on Tuesday, as House Republicans have differing opinions on advancing single-subject spending bills versus passing a stopgap measure. The latter is what angered hard-line conservatives against McCarthy, leading to his ouster.
McCarthy’s Renomination and the Messy Nature of Democracy
There is a chance McCarthy could be renominated for speaker by a handful of his allies and centrist members of the conference. However, McCarthy has instructed members not to nominate him after leaving the door open to a return to the speaker’s gavel on Monday.
“Democracy is a messy business,” Burchett said. “It’s been from the start, and it’s not a bunch of people up here and in fake wigs, articulating things with the queen’s English. I think that it’s a dirty business, and they realize it. We followed every rule that was on the books, the rules that Kevin McCarthy supported. So, we follow the rules.”
Despite the challenges and divisions, lawmakers are hopeful that the conference will eventually unite around one candidate and have a nominee by the time the House reconvenes on Wednesday.
Source: The Washington Examiner
How are House Republicans currently divided in the race for Speaker of the House?
The Race for Speaker of the House: Divisions and Contenders
The House Republican Conference is gearing up for an exciting speaker candidate forum on Tuesday. However, the members remain divided, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is now discouraging allies from adding him to the mix.
Two lawmakers have emerged as the top contenders for the position: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Both candidates have been actively meeting with different caucuses and delegations, passionately making their case as to why they should be the next speaker.
Jordan currently leads in public endorsements over Scalise, but there is still a majority of members who have either not publicly endorsed either candidate or say they have not yet made up their minds.
“It’s time that we make a selection and get back to governing,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) said. “Both [Scalise and Jordan], I think, could get us there.”
As it stands, whoever receives a simple majority in the party’s conference meeting on Wednesday will become the GOP nominee. However, more than 90 Republicans are trying to change the rules, complicating the process. They want any one candidate to receive 217 votes in the meeting to become the conference’s nominee, aiming to avoid a floor fight similar to the one in January that eventually ended in McCarthy’s speakership.
“I don’t want to go to the floor with 15 rounds,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said. “I guess [McCarthy] thought it put pressure on those folks to conform, and then all it did was put them into the international spotlight, and they stayed longer. So, I would hope that we can get it all resolved.”
The candidate forum scheduled for Tuesday should help members solidify their support for a particular candidate. It is expected that the proposed rule change will also be discussed during the forum, addressing its implications for the conference moving forward.
“I want to remind my colleagues that until we elect a speaker, we’re going to have all the rules we want. We can change every rule that we want. But until we elect the speaker, nothing can happen,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who has endorsed Scalise.
Currently, neither of the two candidates has the 217 votes necessary to become speaker on the floor under the revised rules. This has led to increased complexity and uncertainty in the race.
“The race for speaker of the House has become increasingly more complicated in the last week,” one GOP aide told the Washington Examiner. “Jim Jordan may be the darling of the far right, but he stands no chance courting moderates. As of now, Steve Scalise doesn’t have a clear path to 218.”
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