Scalise drops out of House speaker’s race, leaving GOP in limbo over leadership

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Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s path to the House speaker’s chair hit a brick wall Thursday, and he surprised rank-and-file Republicans by dropping out of contention after roughly 20 conservatives refused to support him.

Republicans are now left scrambling for a Plan B that could involve rounding up support for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who is favored by the Republican holdouts who refused to back Mr. Scalise.

They could also pick another candidate entirely or find a way to provide Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who was appointed temporary speaker, with the power to conduct legislation, which he lacks under the House rules.

“We are back to square one,” Rep. Mike Waltz, Florida Republican, said after Mr. Scalise announced that he was dropping out of the race in a closed-door meeting in the Capitol.

The Louisiana Republican had a day of futile efforts to persuade a group of hard-line conservative holdouts to back him.

In the meantime, frustration is boiling over among House lawmakers as the chamber remained dark for a second week because of rules prohibiting legislative business without an elected speaker.

On Oct. 3, a group of eight conservatives pushed out Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Scalise was his deputy.

Rep. Don Bacon, Nebraska Republican, said the party should cut a deal with Democrats to provide the votes on the House floor for someone to win the speaker’s job.

Such a plan would likely require an unprecedented power-sharing agreement or concession to the Democrats, who are in the minority.

Rep. Troy Nehls, Louisiana Republican, said if a House Republican can’t round up enough votes for the speaker’s post, then Republicans should nominate former President Donald Trump.

“If we’re here till Sunday, Monday, Tuesday of next week, and we don’t have someone, we got to come up with another option,” Mr. Nehls said. “Maybe it’s somebody from the outside. Why not the leader of our party?”

Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, had endorsed Mr. Jordan, a conservative firebrand, for the job of speaker after having appeared to toy with the “Speaker Trump” proposal.

Mr. Jordan lost to Mr. Scalise in Wednesday’s secret ballot to decide the Republicans’ candidate for speaker. The vote was 113-99, with a dozen Republicans voting “present” or “other.”

As soon as Mr. Scalise dropped out, Mr. Jordan’s supporters were rallying for him to become the nominee.

“I voted for Jim Jordan in the conference election yesterday, and I remain committed to doing everything I can to help elect him the next speaker of the House,” said Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana. “He is a conservative fighter and a leader who can unite our party. Republicans have a lot of work to do, and if Jim Jordan is in the speaker’s chair, we will get it done.”

Republicans late Thursday were figuring out what to do next.

More than a half-dozen Republican lawmakers have left town and would have to return to the Capitol for Republicans to nominate a speaker and bring the vote to the House floor.

It wasn’t even clear who was in charge. Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Scalise, who remains the majority leader, left the Thursday meeting early.

Another Republican meeting was planned for Friday.

Some Republicans said Mr. Jordan, who placed second to Mr. Scalise in the Wednesday conference vote for speaker, should try to round up the needed Republican votes.

“I believe congressman Jordan should have his opportunity and if that doesn’t work out, then we have to move on. And we have to have a new candidate,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey Republican, said as he left the closed-door meeting.

Mr. Van Drew, who switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 2019, lamented the discord among House Republicans over their leadership and the resulting paralysis of the Republican agenda in Congress.

Republicans, he said, need to become more organized.

“I became a Republican because I believe in Republican values, I believe in American exceptionalism. And this is not an example of that,” he said.

As the hours passed on Thursday, it became apparent that Mr. Scalise was not going to budge the hard-line conservatives who back Mr. Jordan.

Holdouts viewed Mr. Scalise, a longtime Republican leader, as more of the same in their party at a time when many are looking for the spark of energy and change that they think Mr. Jordan could bring to the speaker’s chair, particularly on spending issues.

“The Swamp refuses to accept the new reality: We won’t be bullied into accepting the status quo or just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic while the American People drown in debt and inadequate leadership,” Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican, posted on X Thursday afternoon following the Republican meeting.

Mr. Perry is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-line conservatives who seek to rein in federal spending, secure the border and reduce the size of government, among other priorities.

Mr. Jordan, 59, co-founded the Freedom Caucus in 2015. Although he is still influential with the group, he was not able to persuade the holdouts to get behind Mr. Scalise.

Some who had been reluctant to back Mr. Scalise, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, said they were concerned about his health.

The 58-year-old lawmaker is undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a treatable but incurable blood cancer. Mr. Scalise said his doctor gave him the go-ahead to run for speaker, and he shows no signs of illness. Mr. Scalise has made a remarkable recovery after he was nearly killed by a left-wing gunman who targeted Republicans at a baseball field in 2017.

Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Scalise’s illness in a Fox News Radio interview, claiming the lawmaker “is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer.”

Scalise backers downplayed his cancer and said he is healthy and is responding better to the cancer treatment than doctors anticipated.