How House Republicans will pick their next speaker nominee in crowded field
Julia Johnson
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Nine House Republicans are in the running to be the next House speaker after the GOP conference voted to move on from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after he failed to garner enough votes on the floor.
The format for the House Republicans’ scheduled candidate forum at 6:30 p.m. reportedly differs from the previous two, in which Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) were selected as speaker designees.
SPEAKERLESS HOUSE: THE LONGEST THE HOUSE HAS GONE WITHOUT A SPEAKER
Each candidate will give a two-minute speech to start, according to Axios. Then, all prospective speakers will participate in a 90-minute question-and-answer session with the conference, followed by one-minute closing speeches.
In the past forums, candidates were given half an hour to speak and pitch themselves to conference members.
The nine announced candidates are House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Reps. Mike Johnson (R-LA), Kevin Hern (R-OK), Gary Palmer (R-AL), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Austin Scott (R-GA), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Dan Meuser (R-PA).
Following the forum on Monday evening, the conference is expected to hold an internal conference vote at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday. Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) recently predicted that a new speaker designee could be headed to the floor for a vote “as soon as Tuesday.”
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The House has been without a speaker for 20 days as Republican infighting paralyzes the conference and its slim majority. The stalled chamber comes as the period to complete appropriations measures to fund the government in regular order and pass them is dwindling. The House passed a temporary 45-day funding measure last month to avoid a government shutdown.
Congress is also facing pressure to pass supplemental funding for Israel, which is in a war with Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.