House Republicans Pick Tom Emmer as New Speaker Nominee

quote:

---

WASHINGTON—Republicans narrowly chose House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) as their nominee for speaker on Tuesday, but his bid to win the gavel immediately ran into trouble, with hard-line conservatives and former President Donald Trump inveighing against him.

---

quote:

---

The developments set the stage for an exasperating replay of previous rounds in the speaker drama, in which a nominee won the party’s nod only to be derailed by a determined band of holdouts, threatening to extend a three-week-old political crisis that began with the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) at the start of month.

---

quote:

---

“It’s a dumpster fire, frankly,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.).

The House is frozen until a new speaker is elected. Lawmakers are eager to get back to work, with many wanting to pass aid to Israel and address a looming government funding deadline next month.

House Republicans picked Emmer over fellow finalist Rep. Mike Johnson (R., La.), the vice chairman of the House Republican conference, following a rapid-fire series of votes to choose from an initial group of more than a half dozen hopefuls. The tally in the final round was 117 for Emmer to 97 for Johnson.

The close finish raised questions about whether Emmer could assemble the 217 votes on the House floor needed to become speaker, or whether he would fall short like previous nominees Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio. After Emmer won, more than 20 members indicated they wouldn’t support him in a floor vote, including some members of the House Freedom Caucus who pulled for Jordan last week.

Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) said that Emmer would never be able to win over sufficient holdouts, given a voting record that he characterized as too moderate. Emmer voted to enshrine federal protections for same-sex couples, and also this year supported a debt-ceiling deal and a stopgap spending bill to avoid a shutdown, putting him at odds with many conservatives.

“He doesn’t have the support in the room right now,” said Banks, who lost a race against Emmer to serve as GOP whip. “It’s been a heated discussion.”

…

Under conference rules, House Republicans decided their nominee by secret ballot. If no one receives a majority of votes on the first ballot, the candidate with the fewest votes on that and each succeeding ballot is out of the running. Voting continues until a single candidate receives a majority.

Voting started this morning, and by noon, Republicans had whittled down the field of candidates to the front-runners Emmer and Johnson. They muscled out other strong candidates Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, and Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.), a Trump ally.

…

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.) said that he had proposed instituting a “penalty box” in which Republicans who didn’t support the Republican speaker designate on the House floor would have to give up their committee assignments for about 90 days.

---