After Friday’s failed attempt to elect a Speaker, the House Republicans as regathering later today for a “candidate forum” to hear from the nine Members who have submitted their names for consideration by yesterday’s deadline.
Here is a just a quick recap of what happened on Friday for those of you who weren’t playing along at home:
Jim Jordan of Ohio– after making a U-turn on a proposal to give Speaker Pro Temp Patrick McHenry of North Carolina additional authority– took his candidacy to the floor for the third time. He lost again, losing more votes. After that, the Republicans reconvened amongst themselves for a secret ballot vote to see if Jordan could actually muster enough support if they were to vote again. As it turned out only, only about 85 Republicans said that they would support Jordan for Speaker (there are 221 Republicans in the House currently). The result forced Jordan to remove himself as the Speaker-designee.
What we now have a situation in which those who are interested in being considered for Speaker were given until yesterday afternoon to submit their names for consideration. As noted above, the Republican conference is scheduled to hold a forum later this evening during which the candidates are expected to make their pitch on why they should be supported. The current plan, which could change, is to hold another vote on Tuesday.
The nine Members who submitted their names for consideration are as follows:
- Jack Bergman of Michigan
- Byron Donalds of Florida
- Tom Emmer of Minnesota
- Kevin Hern of Oklahoma
- Mike Johnson of Louisiana
- Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania
- Gary Palmer of Alabama
- Austin Scott of Georgia
- Pete Sessions of Texas
Read more about them and the current situation here, here, and here.