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House Republicans met late into the evening Tuesday to consider a nominee for speaker after their pick from earlier in the day was pushed out by hardline conservatives and the condemnation of former President Donald Trump.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota lasted about four hours as the House GOP’s nominee Tuesday before it became apparent nearly two dozen conservative holdouts would not cast their vote for him on the House floor, where any GOP nominee can only afford to lose roughly four votes.
Republican lawmakers quickly moved to pick a new candidate among five declared contenders: Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson of Louisiana led the field Tuesday night with 85 votes after one ballot.
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida placed second with 32 votes and Rep. Mark Green earned 23 votes. Rep Roger Williams of Texas placed fourth with 21 votes and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann faced elimination by placing last with 10 votes. Another 33 lawmakers voted for none of the candidates and instead registered as present or picked a different candidate.
Only 204 of the GOP’s 221-member conference showed up to vote for a candidate.
Mr. Johnson, backed by many of the conservatives who refused to back Mr. Emmer, placed second in the earlier round of voting and appears now to be best positioned to win the nomination although it’s not clear he can garner the 217 votes needed to secure the gavel in a floor vote.
He is a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest faction of GOP conservatives in the House. He’s backed by the RSC’s current chairman, Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma.
“He knows everybody very well, he does a great job with bringing people to the floor talking about our policies and that’s what we need right now. We need somebody that’s bigger than an individual. And he’s the guy,” Mr. Hern said Tuesday.
A new plan some lawmakers said is under consideration involved re-electing ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California and giving him an assistant: Conservative favorite Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The plan to resuscitate Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Jordan, who lost his bid for the gavel last week, came as the House plodded through a third chaotic week without a speaker. A top GOP aide confirmed the McCarthy-Jordan proposal to The Washington Times.
Under the scenario floated by Mr. McCarthy, he would reclaim the speaker’s gavel and Mr. Jordan, a conservative firebrand and staunch Trump ally, would serve as the assistant speaker.
Rep. Max Miller of Ohio said he’d back the proposal.
“Kevin’s the guy,” Mr. Miller said. “He still has the most support. How many guys in leadership do we have to kneecap?”
Another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, rejected the idea as “mad,” while a GOP aide not affiliated with either Mr. McCarthy or Mr. Jordan said the proposal was “not real.”
The discord among Republicans has left the House without a speaker for three weeks.
Lawmakers could vote on the floor as soon as Wednesday on their latest nominee, whoever wins it.
The House has been without a speaker and subsequently unable to legislate since October. 3, when a group of hardline conservatives leveraged a once-obscure rule to oust Mr. McCarthy.
A succession of nominees has since been elected by the GOP conference but have failed to win enough GOP votes on the House floor.
Mr. Emmer held the nomination for about four hours before it became clear he would not flip two dozen holdouts who said he was not conservative enough. He was then torpedoed by Mr. Trump, who wields considerable sway over the party and is the prohibitive favorite for the party’s 2024 presidenital nomination. Mr. Trump said Mr. Emmer did not appreciate “the power of a Trump endorsement,” and called him a RINO or Republican-in-name-only.
Mr. McCarthy has appeared more distraught about the speaker-less House as the days pass.
A lineup of legislation sits on the back burner, including critical fiscal 2024 spending bills and aid for Israel, which is battling the terrorist organization Hamas.
“This is just a cluster … and a mistake, And it has harmed not just the party but the nation,” Mr. McCarthy said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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