House Republicans voted behind closed doors to select Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana as their nominee for speaker, but it’s unclear if he can lock down the votes needed to win the gavel following Kevin McCarthy’s abrupt ouster.
The final vote tally for the nomination was 113 for Scalise, who currently serves as House majority leader, and 99 for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan – which means Scalise fell below the threshold needed to win the speakership in a full vote on the House floor. That requires a majority of the chamber, which is currently 217 votes.
The House could hold a speaker vote as early as Wednesday afternoon.
The outcome of the nomination vote is a blow to former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who has made a name for himself as a staunch Trump ally.
Until a speaker is elected, the House remains effectively paralyzed following McCarthy’s ouster, an unprecedented situation that has taken on new urgency amid Israel’s war against Hamas. Raising the stakes further, the longer it takes Republicans to elect a new speaker, the less time lawmakers will have to try to avert a government shutdown with a funding deadline looming in mid-November.
A key question now is whether Republicans will coalesce around Scalise in a House floor vote for the speakership. In January, it took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to secure the gavel – and as of now, Scalise is short of the votes he needs to win.
Following the vote to elect Scalise as the nominee, several House Republicans were uncertain if they could elect a speaker quickly, given the sharp divide between supporters of Scalise and Jordan.
“It looks like Steve Scalise is our speaker designee … and I hope we can unify as a party and put a speaker in the chair,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs committee.
“We need a speaker in the chair. We’re in dangerous times right now, we’re in three major global conflicts, potentially, and we cannot afford to not have a speaker in the chair,” he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Republicans rejected a proposal to raise the threshold required to select a GOP speaker nominee – a proposal that was aimed at preventing a messy public fight on the House floor.
The rules change would have raised the threshold to select a speaker nominee from a majority of the GOP conference – or 111 votes – to 217 votes, a majority of the full House, the number required to win the speaker’s gavel when the entire chamber holds its vote.
The speaker’s race is poised to set off a scramble to fill other spots in GOP leadership. Oklahoma GOP Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma announced on Wednesday that he will run for the position of majority leader.
Scalise is a veteran of House GOP leadership
Scalise has risen through the ranks of leadership during his time in Congress. In the position of House majority leader, Scalise has served as the second-highest-ranking House Republican after McCarthy, prior to the the historic vote to oust the speaker.
Scalise is a prominent figure in the House GOP conference and has long been seen as either a potential successor, or rival, to McCarthy. Before he became majority leader, Scalise served as House GOP whip, a role focused on vote counting and ensuring support for key party priorities. The majority leader, his current role, oversees the House floor and schedules legislation for votes.
The Louisiana Republican is no stranger to adversity.
A shooting in 2017 left him seriously wounded, with a grueling, monthslong recovery process. Scalise was shot by a gunman who opened fire as congressional Republicans were practicing for an annual charity baseball game.
In August, Scalise announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which he described as “a very treatable blood cancer.” In September, Scalise told reporters that in response to treatment, his cancer “has dropped dramatically.”
This story and headline have updated with additional developments.