The House speaker’s race is on. Again.
Republicans will head into a closed conference meeting on Monday evening for a candidate forum. It’s been almost three weeks since they ejected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker, and in that time, all they’ve accomplished is rejecting two more candidates, Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio). They’ve also fought, bullied each other, fielded death threats and played dress-up for the cameras.
The House remains inoperable amid all of this. Without a speaker, the chamber can’t conduct legislative business. Meanwhile, Congress has to act with urgency to consider aid to Israel and Ukraine, and to avert a government shutdown next month.
A whopping nine Republicans are now in the race to be speaker because at this point, it’s a free for all, so why not? The GOP’s plan is to hear out these candidates on Monday evening, and then vote internally on Tuesday to elect one. From there, that nominee would head to the House floor for a full vote and potentially rounds of rejection and public humiliation.
Here’s a snapshot of who these Republican members are. None is likely to win enough votes to become speaker anytime soon, if at all. Yeah.
Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.). The House majority whip, Emmer is the presumptive front-runner to be the next speaker nominee. He’s in top leadership and has McCarthy’s support. But he may be in trouble already. Former President Donald Trump and his allies have been attacking Emmer since Friday, hoping to tank his bid before it takes off. It only takes a handful of Republicans to defeat a speaker nominee, and Trump has many allies in the House.
The former president wants to sideline Emmer because he’s mad that Emmer didn’t vote to throw out the results of the 2020 election and help him steal the presidency. Emmer, who served two terms as chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, also reportedly advised midterm candidates not to focus on Trump in their campaigns. It was sound advice, but it made Trump mad because he can’t handle people crossing him.
While Emmer didn’t vote to overturn the 2020 election, he did sign onto a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of throwing out votes in various states.
Rep. Mike Johnson (La.). The four-term congressman announced his bid Saturday night, billing himself as “a consensus candidate” and laying out his priorities in a letter to colleagues, including restoring trust and advancing a comprehensive policy agenda. Johnson is vice chair of the GOP conference and deputy whip, meaning he is part of current Republican leadership.
He voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Kevin Hern (Okla.). The chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee announced his bid on Friday, billing himself as “a different type of leader who has a proven track record of success.” The three-term congressman is a strong Trump ally.
He voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Austin Scott (Ga.). The seven-term congressman announced his bid on Friday. “If we are going to be the majority we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way,” Scott tweeted. “Now that [Jordan] has withdrawn I am running again to be the Speaker of the House.” He isn’t in leadership, but he is vice chair of the House Committee on Agriculture and co-chair of the Congressional Crop Insurance Caucus. So, he’s got that.
Scott was essentially anonymous, even to many in Congress, before last week, when he served as a token challenger to Jordan in the GOP’s last round of speaker voting. He lost to Jordan, 124-81, but it’s unlikely he can attract a similar level of support in a far more crowded vote.
Scott did not vote to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election, but he did sign onto a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of throwing out votes in various states.
Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.). Despite being a sophomore member, Donalds announced his bid Friday. He has strong support from the far-right flank of his conference. A handful of Republicans voted for him during Jordan’s failed bids for speaker, and amid McCarthy’s many rounds of votes to be speaker in January, Donalds picked up 20 votes at one point.
He voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Jack Bergman (Mich.). The four-term congressman announced on Saturday that he’s running for speaker, saying he can be “a unifying voice” and pointing to his decades in the Marine Corps. Bergman is the chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee and a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
He voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas). Sessions announced his bid for speaker on Saturday, leaning on his credentials as former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee when the House won 63 seats and his six-year tenure as chairman of the Rules Committee. “I am running for speaker of the House because I know what it will take to move the Republican Party forward,” he said in a video statement.
Left unsaid is how long ago those tenures were: He chaired the NRCC in 2010, and chaired the Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019. He actually lost his seat, based in the suburbs of Dallas, in 2018. He then moved more than 100 miles away to his hometown of Waco and won a seat there in 2020. Since returning to the House, he’s held less powerful roles.
Sessions voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.). The five-term congressman is the chair of the conservative Republican Policy Committee, the policy research arm of the GOP conference. He is a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus.
Palmer voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.
Rep. Dan Meuser (Penn.). The three-term congressman said Friday that his message “will be focused on politics of inclusion,” and the idea that every member of the GOP conference should “be a part of policy making, legislation, and communications.”
He is co-chair of the Congressional Cigar Caucus, which apparently exists.
Meuser voted to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.