This article has been updated to include posts in which House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) urges his supporters to vote for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).
House Republicans held a private vote early Wednesday afternoon to select their candidate for House speaker after last week’s ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Members are now sharing that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has secured the nomination by a vote of 113 to 99 against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). This is despite former and potentially future President Donald Trump endorsing Jordan last week after his name was considered a possibility.
As Fox News’ Chad Pergram noted, that doesn’t mean he’ll definitely become speaker, as the full House still needs to vote. However, this is an official candidate.
Issa says Scalise won GOP support for speaker 113-99.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 11, 2023
Scalise wins conference for Spkr. This does not guarantee that flr will win. But he is the official candidate for speaker. House GOP members have said they won’t go to the floor until they know they have the votes.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 11, 2023
Timing is of the essence in the selection of a novel speaker, not only to prevent a government shutdown as time passes and the timely Continuing Resolution (CR) passes, but also now because of the unrest on the world stage caused by Hamas’ attack on Israel “. We now know that Americans are among those killed and captured, and that the number continues to rise.
Given this political climate, it is therefore likely that everyone wants to avoid a repeat of January, when it took McCarthy several days and 15 rounds to get enough votes to secure the Speaker’s job in the early morning hours of January 7.
Even before the vote count was announced, posts expressing confidence in Scalise were being shared, including from Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman.
As Sherman also wrote throughout Wednesday, novel leadership would be necessary if Scalise were to become speaker. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), whose name has also previously been floated as a possibility, will run for office Majority leader. Hern currently serves as chairman of the Republican Studies Committee.
Steve Scalise is currently the clear favorite for the Republican Party’s nomination for speaker.
He could end it today.
Over the past few days, Scalise’s whip operation has been working overtime to defeat a request to amend the party’s bylaws to appoint a speaker.
We wrote about the Team…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 11, 2023
On the other hand, it’s still unclear whether Scalise has it in the bag. We’ll move on to Democrats in a moment, but it’s unlikely they’ll vote for any Republican for speaker. They are already enabled renomination of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Some Republicans in the House of Representatives who support Jordan still vote for him anyway.
This includes Reps. Max Miller (R-OH) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Axios’ Andrew Solender maintains a list of members who choose not to work with Scalise.
Members not involved in supporting Scalise on the floor:
Jordan
– Boebert
-Miller (Ohio)McCarthy
– GimenezUndecided/I won’t say
-MTG
– Mace
– Coal
– Cloud
– Clyde
– Sparta
– Armstrong— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 11, 2023
However, after Scalise received the nomination for House Speaker, Jordan revealed that he was voting for Scalise and urged his supporters to do so.
Jordan will vote for Scalise and urges his supporters to support him on the floor
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 11, 2023
Pergram even said Scalise appears to have the support of House Democrats, and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (R-Calif.) considers him more “polite” compared to Jordan, who he believes is “dangerous to our democracy “. Given this type of show of support, no Democrat should be expected to vote for any Republican for speaker.
Under Jeffries’ leadership, House Democrats refused to save McCarthy from removal last Tuesday and all voted with eight Republicans in favor of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate his seat. In the hours following McCarthy’s ouster, Democrats released statements outlining the situation affecting them and expressing hope that the Republican Party would move away from so-called “MAGA extremism,” despite voting under the lights, with some members believed to have MAGA wings like Gaetz, as well as members like Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).
From colleague Kelly Phares. House Dem Caucus Chair Aguilar in Jordan v. Scalise for Speaker. He says Scalise is the more “polite” member. Says Jordan is ‘perilous to our democracy’
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 11, 2023
The vote was initially expected to take place at 3 p.m., when the House convenes, but that version was later scrapped over concerns that Scalise would not have enough votes.
The vote for Speaker of the House will NOT take place today; Sources say Scalise does NOT have the required 217 votes
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 11, 2023
House starts the session. After that, however, breaks depend on the chairman’s call. It is unclear whether the House will still be able to vote today
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 11, 2023
