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WASHINGTON — Shortly after Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise secured the party’s nomination to be the next House speaker, Republican U.S. Representatives Chip Roy of Austin and Michael Cloud of Victoria both threatened to vote against Scalise.
These Republicans, along with a small but vocal minority of moderates, may be enough to prevent Scalise from taking the gavel.
There were three Texans who rejected former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership candidacy in January, and Roy and Cloud were two of them. Their goal was to increase their faction’s power, thus the vote count had to be extended to 15 times. On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, the other Texas holdout, announced on social media that he voted against Republican Conference Chairman Steve Scalise in a private meeting held before the vote in the House. He wouldn’t say how he would vote on the floor of the Senate.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives adjourned without electing a new speaker. The Republicans have not decided when they will next vote.
Scalise is competing against Freedom Caucus co-founder and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio to replace McCarthy as speaker. McCarthy was removed from his position as a result of a revolt by eight far-right members, none of whom were Texans, who had various grievances with him. Florida Representative Matt Gaetz spearheaded the effort and announced on Wednesday that he would support Scalise.
During the Wednesday meeting of the House Republican Conference, 113 members voted for Scalise to be their party’s nominee for the House-wide speaker election. Jordan was awarded 99 votes. To gain the gavel, whoever the Republicans nominate as their candidate must earn 217 votes in the entire House.
During the meeting, Roy advocated for a rule that would require a speaker candidate to receive at least 217 ballots in the Republican conference before scheduling a vote of the entire House. The rule was intended to avoid the public conflict that marred the January speaker race and led to a brutally public display of the party’s disarray.
Wednesday morning, the conference resolved to suspend the rule change despite widespread support for it.
Roy seemed enraged as he walked out of the conference gathering. As he exited the meeting, he refused to comment on the election, but subsequently commented on social media, “The House GOP should NOT have called a vote at 300pm after finishing the vote in Conference at 130pm.” That is both wrong and intentional.” He promised to keep voting against Scalise.
Following a meeting with Scalise on Wednesday night, Roy expressed disappointment that his rule proposal was canceled, despite the fact that a varied spectrum of members supported it, preventing the party from seeming more cohesive. He declined to say if he would ultimately endorse Scalise if additional rule changes were made, citing a desire not to reveal private negotiations. He said that the conference is currently ironing out its disagreements in advance of the House vote.
“There is a tendency in this town for the status quo to take shape and be able to roll over people and steamroll people who are trying to work across ideologies,” he added.
Cloud also said it was a “bad, bad idea” to proceed to a full-House vote with “barely half the conference’s support” for their top candidate, especially when Congress has to approve government funding legislation in roughly a month to avoid a federal shutdown.
Cloud wrote in his post, “While I respect Steve Scalise, the sneaky attempts to rush this vote to the floor without getting full buy-in from the conference are very bad ideas, and I will not be supporting the nomination on the floor until there is more discussion.”
Before Wednesday’s meeting, the Texas group was split on which candidate to support. About the same number of people supported each of the top two candidates. The House Freedom Caucus, which is made up of very conservative people, tended to agree with Jordan more. Former President Donald Trump also backed Jordan.
Scalise, on the other hand, had the support of key McCarthy supporters. Scalise came up through the traditional lines of the House Republican Conference. With his long list of accomplishments and strong ability to raise money, he was the more natural choice to be the next leader.
Not everyone was willing to show their support. A few members didn’t tell anyone how they were voting until the day of the election. Others said that either candidate would have been fine, and they were just waiting to see who could get the most support and end the dirty game.
“The most crucial factor in my opinion is that the candidate must be able to get enough votes to take the gavel as speaker. Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Houston, said, “Whoever that person is, I’m not completely certain on that. I didn’t declare who I voted for at the party gathering on Wednesday.
Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican from Richmond, also expressed his desire that more had been done to unify the GOP around a single candidate. Nehls strongly supported Jordan, pointing to Trump’s support of the Ohioan. Trump had previously been nominated by Nehls to be speaker, but that nomination campaign fizzled out soon.
“I believe that is now extremely challenging to do. I believe there ought to have been more conversation,” Nehls remarked. “I just want to make sure we don’t repeat what we did in January and humiliate ourselves because it was a clown show,” said the speaker.
Nehls didn’t say which candidate he would back on the House floor, but he implied that a third contender like Trump or another McCarthy might bring the party together.
Even the parties disagree, no one wants a long speaker war like the one in January. Unlike in January, when McCarthy’s opponents held out to force House rule changes, numerous Texas Republicans believed the two candidates have similar policies.
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell, said he was optimistic additional members would join Scalise’s side once they saw his majority Republican support.
“He’ll get elected,” Gooden remarked of Scalise. “I don’t see the January disarray.”