The eight conservative rebels who voted with House Democrats to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker haven’t decided yet on their choice to replace him.
Since the historic vote on Tuesday to remove Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio have both confirmed their ambition to run for the gavel.
Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma is also eyeing the gavel, but has yet to make a public commitment to the race.
With more candidates likely to materialize in the days leading up to a candidate forum planned by Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, members of the rebellious faction of eight will have options to mull. Many members of the Republican conference are doubtful that lawmakers can reach a consensus on a candidate.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has said that he might support Mr. Scalise, Mr. Hern or Mr. Jordan, but has not directly said who would get his full backing. He offered other ideas for speaker candidates, such as Rep. Jodye Arrington of Texas and former New York conservative lawmaker Lee Zeldin.
“I know this, if it’s Speaker Jim Jordan or Speaker Steve Scalise there will be very few conservatives in the country who don’t see that as a monumental upgrade over Speaker McCarthy,” Mr. Gaetz told Newsmax.
SEE ALSO: Jim Jordan running to replace McCarthy as House speaker
Other members of the eight were not as direct in naming a candidate that they might even consider as a viable option. The offices of Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Andy Biggs of Arizona all told The Washington Times that the lawmakers were weighing their options.
However, the eight seem to agree that whoever gets the gavel has to be trustworthy, something they said Mr. McCarthy was not.
Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana said Mr. McCarthy’s ouster showed that “a lot of people are interested in his position.”
Mr. Rosendale’s priority was to make sure that the new speaker would be trustworthy, and perhaps most importantly for the arch-conservative, would not allow Democratic lawmakers to drive policy decisions while Republicans have the majority.
Democrats voting in favor of Mr. McCarthy’s stopgap bill that gave lawmakers more time to fund the government was an example of Democratic lawmakers driving policy, he said.
“As far as someone working with Democrats, we have to, we’re in divided government, okay,” Mr. Rosendale said. “But there’s a huge difference between compromise and allowing the Democrats to dictate the policy that is coming out of this.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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