WASHINGTON (AP) — Stalemated over a new House speaker, the Republican majority is scheduled to convene behind closed doors to launch internal party voting but lawmakers warn it could take hours, if not days, to unite behind a nominee after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
Stalemated over a new House speaker, the Republican majority is scheduled to convene behind closed doors to launch internal party voting but lawmakers warn it could take hours, if not days, to unite behind a nominee after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
The two leading contenders Wednesday for the gavel, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, appear to be splitting the vote among their Republican colleagues. They outlined their visions at a lengthy candidate forum ahead of the private balloting.
McCarthy, meanwhile, who had openly positioned himself to reclaim the job he just lost, told his colleagues not to nominate him this time. Instead, at Tuesday’s late evening candidate forum, he read a poem from Mother Teresa and delivered a unity prayer.
“I don’t know how the hell you get to 218,» Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said afterward, referring to the majority vote typically needed to seize the gavel. “It could be a long week.”
House Republicans took the majority aspiring to operate as a team, and run government more like a business, but have drifted far from that goal. Just 10 months in power, the historic ouster of their House speaker — a first in the U.S. — and prolonged infighting has brought the House to a standstill at a time of crisis at home and abroad.
Now, as House Republicans push ahead toward snap elections Wednesday aimed at finding a new nominee for speaker, the hard-right coalition of lawmakers that ousted McCarthy has shown what an oversized role a few lawmakers can have in choosing the successor.
“I am not thrilled with either choice right now,” said Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican who voted to oust McCarthy.
Both Scalise and Jordan are working furiously to shore up support. Both are easily winning over dozens of supporters and could win a majority of the 221 Republicans.
But it’s unclear if either Scalise or Jordan can amass the votes that would be needed from almost all Republicans to overcome opposition from Democrats during a floor vote in the narrowly split House.
