Republicans still don’t have a House speaker candidate
In a caucus vote that was supposed to settle the question of who would lead the House Republicans in the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, the results just added to the GOP’s chaos. The final vote was 113 for Rep. Steven Scalise, a one-vote majority of the Republican caucus, while Rep. Jim Jordan got 99 votes. While both Republicans vowed to endorse the ultimate winner, many of the same zealots who scuttled McCarthy last week are refusing to vote for Scalise when the full House votes.
Republicans have 221 seats in the House, while Democrats have 212. House rules require a majority of everyone present. So assuming that every Democrat and every Republican shows up, Scalise needs 217 votes to become speaker, meaning he can only lose four Republicans. As of now, four Republicans are refusing to vote for Scalise, and a fifth is making unreasonable demands for his vote. Several more Scalise skeptics remain publicly mum on their plans.
As you can imagine, Republicans canceled today’s speaker vote. The way things were going, a vote could have very possibly ended up with Democratic Speaker Hakeem Jeffries leading the House.
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