Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) speaks at a news conference with female athletes, following the House’s expected passage of the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports”, on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 20, 2023.
Amanda Andrade-Rhoades | Reuters
Deeply divided Republican lawmakers this week are trying to put together a nominee for speaker of the House of Representatives for a third time, after their two previous candidates failed to garner enough party support.
House Republicans held a closed-door candidate forum at 6:30 pm ET Monday, with nine GOP lawmakers running for the party’s nomination after Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for the gavel in three votes last week.
But dropped by Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) made his bid to be a speaker at the closed-door forum, citing his “commitment to President Trump to help lead his campaign in Pennsylvania,” NBC News reported. The House GOP candidate forum is currently underway. With Meuser dropping out, there are now eight candidates left.
An internal party vote is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET Tuesday to choose the next GOP nominee.
The House has been without a leader for more than two weeks, with no resolution in sight, leaving Congress paralyzed as the clock ticks down to a Nov. 17 to avoid a government shutdown. President Joe Biden also called on lawmakers to pass immediate security assistance for Israel and Ukraine.
House Speaker Interim Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said he wants the nominee to come up for a House vote as soon as Tuesday.
Republicans fired Jordan on Friday. His disappointment came after the party’s original nominee, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, bowed out of the race because he didn’t get enough GOP votes. It is highly uncertain whether any of the eight candidates can succeed where Jordan and Scalise have failed.
Democrats lined up in lockstep behind their nominee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. This means the GOP nominee can only lose by four Republican votes because of the party’s narrow majority in the House.
Only two of the eight GOP candidates, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, voted to certify the victory of President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The other seven GOP speaker candidates contested Biden’s victory in Arizona or Pennsylvania or both, after mobs of former President Donald Trump’s supporters sacked the Capitol in January. 6 2021. All candidates voted against the establishment of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 chaos.
Five of the eight GOP candidates voted in September for temporary spending legislation to avoid a government shutdown.
These are the eight Republican candidates.
Tom Emmer of Minnesota
US House Majority Whip Rep. talked. Tom Emmer (R-MN) to members of the media following the House’s passage of a 45-day continuing resolution on September 30, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Nathan Howard | Getty Images
Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer has the support of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, whose ouster by a GOP rebel group sparked the current House leadership crisis.
“He’s set himself head and shoulders above everyone else who wants to run,” McCarthy said of Emmer in an interview with NBC News on Sunday. “We need to elect him this week and go ahead and bring this not just consolidation but focus on what this country needs most.”
The Minnesota Republican voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. He voted to fund the government in September.
Austin Scott of Georgia
US Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), who finished second in the poll behind Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), seeking to become the next Speaker of the House, speaks to reporters following a meeting of the House Republican Conference in an effort to select a new leader for the US House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 13, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Rep. Austin Scott ran against Jordan for the GOP nomination earlier this month, but lost to the Ohio Republican. Jordan defeated Scott in a closed-door internal party 124 to 81.
Austin next supported Jordan’s speaker bid. The Georgia Republican said he will re-enter the race now that Jordan has withdrawn.
“If we’re going to be the majority we have to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way,” Scott said Friday in a social media post on “X.”
Scott voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. He voted to fund the government in September.
Jack Bergman of Michigan
Rep. Jack Bergman
Source: Rep. Jack Bergman
Rep. Jack Bergman, a retired Marine Corps officer, criticized Republicans on Monday for leaving Washington without electing a speaker.
Bergman warned that Congress faces a quick deadline to pass spending legislation by Nov. 17 to avoid a government shutdown.
“Congress should be in session every day until we elect a Speaker and properly fund the government,” Bergman said on “X.”
The Michigan Republican disputed the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Bergman voted to fund the government in September.
Byron Donalds of Florida
US Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) speaks to reporters on the steps of the Capitol after Donalds was nominated as a candidate for Speaker of the House in the vote for a new Speaker on the second day of the 118th Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, January 4, 2023.
Jon Cherry | Reuters
Rep. Byron Donalds is a two-term legislator and member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus.
Republicans nominated Donalds several times in January in an effort to block McCarthy’s marathon bid to secure the gavel.
Donalds is opposed to the results of the 2020 presidential elections in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
The Florida Republican did not vote on the spending legislation in September.
Kevin Hern of Oklahoma
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) speaks to the media after a committee meeting to discuss former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 20, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Rep. said. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, chairman of the Republican study committee, said the GOP needs to rally behind whoever wins the nomination.
“Without that, you have anarchy,” Hern told Fox News on Monday.
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing now,” Hern said. “The world needs to reopen the House to what we’re seeing around the world, it’s imperative that we get the Republican party back in leadership and America back in its leadership position.”
Hern contested the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Oklahoma Republicans voted against funding the government in September.
Mike Johnson of Louisiana
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, speaks during a televised interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
Patrick Semansky | AP
Rep. Mike Johnson is the GOP deputy whip and vice chairman of the Republican conference.
Johnson said he previously put off running for speaker out of respect for Jordan, Scalise and Scott.
“Incumbent on us now to decide upon a consensus candidate who can serve as a trusted caretaker and good steward of the gavel,” Johnson said in a letter to GOP lawmakers.
Johnson is opposed to the results of the 2020 presidential elections in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Louisiana Republicans voted against funding the government in September.
Gary Palmer of Alabama
Republican US Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, who is running for re-election to the US House of Representatives in the 2022 US midterm elections, is seen in an undated handout photo issued on October 11, 2022.
US House of Representatives | via Reuters
Rep. Gary Palmer is chairman of the House Republicans’ policy committee.
Palmer pledged in a statement on Sunday to move the party beyond its internal divisions.
The Alabama Republican contested the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Palmer voted against funding the government in September.
Pete Sessions of Texas
Rep. Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Rep. said. Pete Sessions on Monday that he will make border security one of his top priorities as speaker.
Sessions indicated in an interview with Newsmax that he would try to tie government funding to building a wall along the southern border: “We have to solve our border issue,” Sessions said.
Sessions has served in Congress since the 1990s. He led the House Republican campaign arm when the GOP won the 2010 midterm elections.
Sessions disputed the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Texas Republicans voted to fund the government in September.
