House Republicans meeting to select new House speaker nominee

BY MELISSA QUINN, CAROLINE LINTON

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS) — House Republicans are meeting behind closed doors Wednesday to select their nominee for speaker after the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy last week.

McCarthy’s removal set up a head-to-head battle between Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan for the gavel. The House has been at a standstill since the unprecedented vote that left the speaker post vacant, though the attacks in Israel have lent urgency to filling the role.

Secret ballot voting

If the vote does take place, GOP members will cast secret ballots. Lawmakers who emerged from the morning meeting late Wednesday morning said the conference is voting on a motion to table an amendment to conference rules that would raise the threshold required to nominate a speaker.

The rule amendment, proposed by Reps. Chip Roy and Brian Fitzpatrick, would require any candidate to win 217 votes — the current majority since there are two vacancies — before the full House takes a floor vote. Existing rules say that a nominee only needs half the conference’s support.

The rule change seeks to avoid the spectacle of the multiple rounds of voting McCarthy endured in his bid for speaker in January.

Speaker nominations

Reps. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Erin Houchin of Indiana, and Mike Carey of Ohio are set to nominate Jordan for speaker, while Reps. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, Ashley Hinson of Iowa, and John James of Michigan are expected to nominate Scalise, according to sources familiar with the process.

The House Republican conference met privately Tuesday night for a long candidate forum and took questions from rank-and-file members. Rep. Mike Garcia, of California, estimated that around 30-40 Republicans asked questions of the two. Neither Jordan nor Scalise appeared to have won over a majority, and a failure to secure the necessary support could set up a long battle for the gavel.

Speaking on Fox News on Wednesday morning, Scalise said they “have to get the House back to work,” adding there are “real things that need to be done.” WIthout a speaker, the House has not even been able to pass a resolution condemning Hamas after this weekend’s terrorist attack in Gaza, and it’s unclear what authority Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, who was tapped to temporarily lead the chamber by McCarthy, has beyond overseeing the election of a new speaker.

The House Republican conference met privately Tuesday night for a long candidate forum and took questions from rank-and-file members. Rep. Mike Garcia, of California, estimated that around 30-40 Republicans asked questions of the two. Neither Jordan nor Scalise appeared to have won over a majority.

On Tuesday night after the meeting, Garcia called both “very solid candidates” but said, “I don’t know if there’s gonna be a speaker tomorrow morning … we’ll see where this goes.”

Scalise said Tuesday night that he was “confident” that a speaker would be chosen Wednesday.

The House speaker, who is second in line for the presidency, must be elected with a majority of the full House, which currently means 217 votes, since there are two vacancies.

McCarthy, who earlier this week indicated that he was open to being restored to the speakership, said he told Republicans not to renominate him Tuesday night.

The conference is considering changing the rules to ensure that a single candidate has 217 before the full House votes, in order to avoid the spectacle of the multiple rounds of voting McCarthy endured in his bid for speaker in January.

No Democrat is expected to vote to support a Republican speaker. Given Republicans’ slim majority and divided conference, which still includes the eight Republicans who joined all the Democrats in voting to remove McCarthy, some have proposed another rule change to make it more difficult to remove a speaker.

If there is a vote on Wednesday, it will be a secret ballot. House Republicans must decide on a rule first.

In addition to the conference meeting, approximately 40 members of the conference had their own separate, standalone meetings with Scalise and Jordan on Tuesday. Scalise is running as the person who can unify the party, while Jordan has former President Donald Trump’s backing.

Rep. Nick LaLota of New York told CBS News that it is his “first criteria” that the “next speaker has an appreciation for running the government much like Kevin McCarthy.”