9 Republicans scramble for House Speaker as chaotic fight drags
Nine Republican lawmakers have entered the scramble for House Speaker ahead of a closed-door candidates forum Monday evening as the GOP chaos shows no sign of ending soon.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minnesota, who was No. 3 GOP leader under ousted ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, appears to be the nominal frontrunner, although he is battling reports that former President Donald Trump opposes his bid.
Republican lawmakers will vote to nominate one of the candidates on Tuesday in what could be a grueling scrap for Emmer or anyone else to reach majority support behind closed doors.
Once a nominee is selected that candidate would seek to win the backing of a majority of all votes on the House floor, a daunting task that has killed the once-promising candidacies of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and hardliner Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
It’s not clear whether any of the new candidates — or any Republican for that matter — can win the 217 GOP votes needed to end the mess the fractious caucus brought upon itself.
After three weeks of leaderless chaos, there is still no obvious path back to normalcy for the GOP-held House.
Some Republicans say they would consider a move to pick a temporary stopgap speaker but that idea failed miserably last week mostly because it would require seeking the support of Democrats.
The crisis was unleashed when a small group of eight right-wing Republicans toppled McCarthy, the first time in history that a House Speaker has been ousted in that role while in power.
The nine candidates are all men and include only one who is not white: Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, who is Black.
Emmer is a longtime member of the House GOP leadership and a former Republican National Committee chairman.
He is a staunch conservative but is considered to be part of the mainstream establishment wing of the party. That in itself could be enough to doom his candidacy as some of the far right-wing members may object to him.
Trump has signaled that he doesn’t back Emmer, adding to the hurdles Emmets will have to overcome.
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Oklahoma, would also appear to have a significant base of support as the leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee, a key GOP faction.
Donalds is a relative newcomer but has made a splash as an eloquent voice in the right-wing pro-Trump wing of the party.
He initally joined the opposition to McCarthy in January when the ex-Speaker won the gavel after a 15-ballot slog, but eventually backed McCarthy.
Rounding out the sprawling field are Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Michigan, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, Rep. Austin Scott, R-Georgia, Dan Meuser, R-Pennsylvania, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana.
The prospects of any candidate being able to win the near-unanimous vote of the caucus needed to win appear bleak.
McCarthy, Scalise and Jordan all commanded loyalty of large chunks of the GOP caucus but crucially also stoked enough bitter opposition to sink their bids.
Democrats have so far stayed on the sidelines of the GOP civil war with lawmakers voting in lockstep for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the House floor.
That could change if Republicans prove unable to elect a speaker. Democrats could agree to allow a Republican moderate to win by abstaining en masse.
Jeffries has said Democrats would consider negotiating a solution but would insist on a compromise that would allow votes on crucial foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel, along with a spending package to keep the government open past a Thanksgiving shutdown deadline.