The House is set to vote on Tuesday for the potential election of a new speaker, as stated in a notice issued by the Democratic whip. This development comes after the House has been without a speaker, who holds the second position in the line of succession to the presidency, since October 3rd, when Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ejected in a vote of 216-210, with eight Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting his removal. This marked the first time in history that a sitting speaker was removed.
Immediately following McCarthy’s removal, Rep. Patrick McHenry was appointed as the speaker pro tempore. However, this left the House unable to conduct most of its business, including voting in support of Israel or condemning Hamas after the recent attack.
Since McCarthy’s removal, both Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan have expressed interest in being nominated by Republicans as the next speaker. Scalise won the nomination among Republicans in a vote of 113 to 99, but he withdrew his name from consideration just one day later, citing that “there are still some people that have their own agendas.”
On Friday, House Republicans nominated the far-right Jordan, who reportedly received 124 votes. However, Rep. Austin Scott, a seven-term Georgia Republican, launched a last-minute protest candidacy and garnered approximately 80 votes.
It remains uncertain if Jordan has sufficient support from the entire House. A candidate needs a majority of the votes, which in this case is 217, taking into account the two vacancies. Considering Republicans have a narrow majority, they can only afford to lose four votes to secure a majority.
Democrats are advising their caucus to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as they did during the 15 rounds of voting in January prior to McCarthy’s official election. Jeffries stated on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there have been informal discussions between House Democrats and Republicans, with the aim of establishing a bipartisan governing coalition. Jeffries believes that these conversations should commence formally in the upcoming week.
“We have made it clear publicly and privately that we are ready, willing, and able to enter into a bipartisan governing coalition,” Jeffries expressed, adding that they are ready to be reasonable in finding common ground.
Rep. Mike Turner, on the other hand, shared on “Face the Nation” that he would be supporting Jordan for speaker and believed that Jordan could secure 217 votes on the floor. However, he acknowledged that if Republicans cannot unite behind Jordan or another candidate, then a deal would need to be reached.
McCarthy was removed from his position after relying on Democrats to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 17, thereby averting a government shutdown at the last minute.
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