House Republicans on Wednesday nominated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) to be the next Speaker by a vote of 113-99.
The vote came amid a meeting of the Republican conference members behind closed doors following last week’s unprecedented ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The road to the final vote is likely to be a messy process, as House Republicans have been closely divided between Scalise and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The first order of business Wednesday was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) that would require a nominee to secure 217 votes within the Republican conference before sending that person’s name to the full House floor. Clearly that didn’t happen in the vote for Scalise.
There are a total of 221 Republicans in the House, giving them a razor-thin five seat majority over the Democrats, who are almost certain to vote en mass for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) when the formal vote takes place—just as they did in January when McCarthy underwent a near-historic 15 rounds of voting before taking the gavel.
Despite this, House Republicans are under pressure to move quickly from members of their own party in the Senate amid a looming deadline to pass a federal budget for fiscal year 2024 and avoid a government shutdown in mid-November, as well as calls to approve appropriations for additional military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
McCarthy reportedly told his fellow Republicans not to nominate him again.
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