On Thursday evening, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) officially bowed out of the race for speaker of the House after he was unable to secure the necessary 217 votes needed in the Republican conference to win the gavel leaving the race now open to a number of ambitious Republicans.
As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, conservative Republicans turned on Scalise with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) writing, "I will not be voting for [Steve Scalise] on the floor this afternoon. The House GOP should NOT have called a vote at 300pm after finishing the vote at 130pm in Conference. That is unacceptable & purposeful."
"Surprises are for little kids at birthday parties, not Congress," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) explained. "So, I let Scalise know in person that he doesn’t have my vote on the floor, because he has not articulated a viable plan for avoiding an omnibus."
The initial vote on Wednesday came down to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-FL) and Rep. Scalise. Both men were viable candidates for the position, but many GOP moderates saw Jordan as too conservative to advance as the leader of the conference.
Given this, the GOP conference, after taking a secret ballot, decided that Scalise would be their nominee for speaker of the House after winning a majority of the Republican conference's vote. However, this tentative peace only remained for a few hours before conservative Republicans refused to vote for Scalise on the House floor.
The vote was 113 in favor of Scalise and 99 in favor of Jordan. Nine members voted present.
Given that Scalise has dropped out of the speaker race, Jordan or another Republican could jump back into the fray in order to get the support of the GOP conference.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, conservative Republicans turned on Scalise with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) writing, "I will not be voting for [Steve Scalise] on the floor this afternoon. The House GOP should NOT have called a vote at 300pm after finishing the vote at 130pm in Conference. That is unacceptable & purposeful."
"Surprises are for little kids at birthday parties, not Congress," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) explained. "So, I let Scalise know in person that he doesn’t have my vote on the floor, because he has not articulated a viable plan for avoiding an omnibus."
The initial vote on Wednesday came down to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-FL) and Rep. Scalise. Both men were viable candidates for the position, but many GOP moderates saw Jordan as too conservative to advance as the leader of the conference.
Given this, the GOP conference, after taking a secret ballot, decided that Scalise would be their nominee for speaker of the House after winning a majority of the Republican conference's vote. However, this tentative peace only remained for a few hours before conservative Republicans refused to vote for Scalise on the House floor.
The vote was 113 in favor of Scalise and 99 in favor of Jordan. Nine members voted present.
Given that Scalise has dropped out of the speaker race, Jordan or another Republican could jump back into the fray in order to get the support of the GOP conference.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
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- Article Source:
DC Enquirer
- Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
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2023-10-13T08:36-0400 | Comment by: Ralph
This is what I think. If they say Jim Jordan is too conservative, doesn't that mean that those Republicans are really too Liberal? With 2024 election coming, it's time to rid congress of ALL RINOs. This is perfect anagram for them since they turn congress into a Zoo.