House Speaker vote: When is it and who are the Republican and Democratic candidates?
Republicans have designated another GOP colleague to be the next Speaker of the House with a vote expected as soon as Tuesday. What is the expected outcome?
Almost two weeks ago a small group of House Republicans managed to take the gavel from Kevin McCarthy, the first time ever a sitting Speaker of the House has been voted out. The fractured GOP has struggled to agree on a replacement since.
While the Republicans, who have a slim majority in the lower chamber, nominated Steve Scalise last week to become Speaker over Rep. Jim Jordan. Just a day later, their No. 2 in the House pulled himself out of the running to take over the gavel as he was unable to convince enough of his party’s members to vote for him.
The runner-up has now been put forth receiving 124 votes from the GOP conference, eleven more than Scalise had received. However, that is still far short of the 217 he will need when his name is put forth for a vote on the floor and there are at least 20 members that will not vote for him. He can only afford to lose four votes on the floor.
House speaker vote: When is it and who are the Republican and Democratic candidates?
According to an announcement by the Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, The US House of Representatives will vote to choose a new speaker around noon on Tuesday. The 212 Democratic representatives are being advised to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as they did during the votes to elect McCarthy speaker at the start of the 118th Congress this year.
It took McCarthy 15 votes, the most since before the Civil War, for him to gain control of the gavel. That was only made possible after he made major concessions to hardliners in his party which in turn were responsible for his removal.
In order to avoid a government shutdown, he turned to Democrats to help pass a continuing resolution to keep federal operations funded and government employees paid until 17 November. That outraged the fringe of his caucus prompting a motion to vacate him from the speakership by just one member, which was made possible due to a rule change McCarthy had agreed to. Eight House GOP members voted in favor, along with all Democratic Representatives who were upset with the former Speaker after several betrayals.
Not even Jesus Christ could get 217 votes
After coming out of the meeting where Majority Leader Scalise announced he was removing his name for consideration for the speakership, Rep. Mark Alford told reporters: “Someone said ‘You know, you could put Jesus Christ up for Speaker of the House, and he still wouldn’t get 217.” That pretty much sums up the divisions among the 221 members of the GOP House majority.
Jordan, who has the full backing of Trump, faced a new competitor during Friday’s vote to nominate him. Rep. Austin Scott threw his hat in the ring at the last minute in protest and garnered 80 votes. There are at least 20 GOP members of the House who say that they will not vote for Jordan if he forces a vote on Tuesday a senior member of the party told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“We can’t reward this behavior,” the individual told CNN referring to hardliners ousting McCarthy and throwing the House into disarray. “We can’t let a small group be dictators.”