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Is Steve Scalise That Much Closer to Securing the Speakership?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 11, 2023 2:00 PM

This article has been updated to include posts that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is urging his supporters to vote for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA). 

Early on Wednesday afternoon, House Republicans conducted a private vote to select their nominee for Speaker of the House, after Kevin McCarthy was ousted last week. Members are now sharing that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has secured the nomination, by a vote of 113-99 against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). This is despite former and potentially future President Donald Trump having endorsed Jordan last week after he himself was floated as a possible name.

As Fox News' Chad Pergram noted, this does not mean that he is guaranteed to become the speaker, as the full House still has to vote. He is, however, the official nominee.

Timing is of the essence to select a new speaker, not only to prevent a government shutdown as the clock ticks for when the continuing resolution (CR) passed just in time runs out, but now because of the unrest on the world stage due to Hamas' attack on Israel. We now know that Americans have been among those killed and captured, and that that number keeps rising.

Given that political climate, it's thus likely that everyone is looking to avoid a repeat from January, when it took several days and 15 rounds for McCarthy to earn enough votes to secure the speakership in the early morning hours of January 7.

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Even before the vote count was announced, posts were being shared expressing confidence about Scalise, including from Punchbowl's Jake Sherman.

As Sherman also posted throughout Wednesday, if Scalise were to become speaker, there would need to be new leadership. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), who had also previously been floated as a possible name, will run for Majority Leader. Hern currently serves as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

Then again, it's still not a sure bet that Scalise has this in the bag. We'll get to the Democrats in a moment, but they are unlikely to vote for any Republican to be speaker. They're already set on renominating House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Some House Republicans supporting Jordan are still set on voting for him regardless.

This includes Reps. Max Miller (R-OH) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Axios' Andrew Solender has been keeping a tally of those members who won't commit to Scalise.

However, after Scalise received the nomination to be Speaker of the House, Jordan revealed he is voting for Scalise and urged his supporters to do so. 

Pergram even shared that Scalise seems to have support from House Democrats, with House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) considering him more "affable" compared to Jordan, who he claims is "dangerous to our democracy." Given that sort of show of support, it is not to be expected that any Democrat will vote for any Republican for speaker. 

Under Jeffries' direction, House Democrats refused to save McCarthy's from being ousted last Tuesday, and all of them voted with eight Republicans on Rep. Matt Gaetz's motion to vacate the chair. In the hours that followed after McCarthy's ouster, Democrats released statements making the situation about them and their hope for the Republican Party to move on from so-called "MAGA extremism," despite voting in light with some of the members regarded as being in that MAGA-wing, such as Gaetz, as well as members like Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

Initially, a vote was reportedly expected to take place at 3:00pm, when the House would recovene, thoug that was later refuted, with there being concerns that Scalise does not have enough votes.