Tom Emmer holds lead among four remaining candidates in House GOP’s speaker race

Majority Whip Tom Emmer led in the first and second and third rounds of ballots when Republicans met behind closed doors in the House basement Tuesday to elect a new nominee for speaker.

The list of what was originally nine candidates has been reduced to four: Mr. Emmer of Minnesota, Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. 

Rep. Pete Sessions, Texas Republican, was forced out in the first round after receiving the lowest number of votes. In the second round, Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan was eliminated. The third round forced out Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia. 

Lawmakers will continue to vote until they whittle down the list to one person who wins the nomination with the majority of support from the conference. Mr. Emmer garnered 78 votes in the first round in the 221-member House Republican Conference and 90 votes in the second round. He picked up an additional ten votes in the third round and is well ahead of  Mr. Johnson’s 42  votes and Mr. Donalds’s 32 votes. 

Six Republicans voted for other candidates or voted present and two lawmakers did not show up. 

The speaker position has been empty since Oct. 3 thanks to intense disagreements within the GOP over the direction of the conference.

At the start of the voting, the list had already shrunk from nine candidates declared on Sunday. Reps. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania and Gary Palmer of Alabama dropped out before the vote.

The winning candidate will then have to overcome the same problem that pushed out ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, of California and blocked Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio and Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana: Winning the support of 217 GOP lawmakers on the House floor, where Democrats also cast a vote for speaker and plan to back their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Some Democrats say they’ll help Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota win the job by sitting out the vote, which would make it easier for Mr. Emmer to win even with some GOP holdouts. But those Democrats want an accompanying spending deal that most Republicans would oppose.