Republicans Narrow Candidates to Fill House Speaker Role

USA – Voice of America

Republicans are narrowing their options down to a few candidates to fill the role of Speaker of the House, which has been vacant since Oct. 3.

The party has been attempting to select a candidate that can secure a majority of votes in secret closed-door meetings.

Initially, nine members of the Republican party intended to pitch their cases to become the next Speaker of the House. Representatives Gary Palmer and Dan Meuser withdrew before voting began Tuesday and others dropped out later in the day.

Representative Tom Emmer had the most support in early balloting, though he failed to secure a majority of votes.

The House has been without a speaker for nearly three weeks after a hard-right faction of eight Republicans joined with all 212 Democrats in the chamber to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Since McCarthy’s ouster, House Republicans have been unsuccessful in coalescing around a replacement. They first nominated Rep. Steve Scalise of the southern state of Louisiana, who was not able to secure the needed votes.

The Republican caucus next gave its nod to Rep. Jim Jordan of the midwestern state of Ohio. Jordan is a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. But Jordan also failed to gain a 217-vote majority in the House, falling well short on a first vote in the full House and then losing ground on two subsequent ballots.

The Republican infighting has left the role of speaker unfilled, leaving the House unable to respond to crucial budget matters. A Nov. 17 deadline looms for budget issues to be resolved before a partial government shutdown will go into effect.

Some information in this report was taken from Reuters