House GOP Goes ‘Back to the Drawing Board’ in Speaker Standoff

House Republicans are back to square one in the speaker standoff this week as they look to nominate a new candidate to wield the gavel after two candidates flamed out and the chamber has sat leaderless for 20 days.

Nine candidates announced bids for the gavel over the weekend, after Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio lost the confidence of the conference following three failed ballots last week. Those candidates are set to make their cases in a closed-door nominating forum on Monday evening before heading to an internal vote on the conference’s nomination Tuesday morning. But whether any candidate can secure the support needed to gain the gavel in the hotly divided conference that has just a razor-thin majority in the chamber remains to be seen.

Considered to be leading the pack is House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican who has been in Congress since 2015 and previously served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. As the No. 3 House Republican, Emmer has an edge over his opponents in his staff operation. And he received the backing of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said he’s “head and shoulders above” the other candidates. But like those who came before him in the speaker standoff, Emmer is not without his opposition.

An Emmer speakership already faces pushback from some staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump, who view him as insufficient in his support for the party’s leader. Of the nine candidates, Emmer is one of just two who voted to certify the 2020 election. He reportedly encouraged House Republicans to distance themselves from Trump in the midterm elections. And like other members of House leadership, he hasn’t endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid.

In addition to Emmer, other prominent House Republicans seeking the gavel include Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. While Johnson, who was elected in 2016 and serves as the vice chairman of the House GOP conference, made a pitch as a “consensus candidate,” Hern, who came to Congress in 2018 and leads the conservative Republican Study Committee marketed himself as a “different type of leader.”

Then there’s Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who was first elected to Congress in 1996 and has previously served as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan, who’s been in Congress since 2017 and leads a House Armed Services subcommittee. Another name that’s recently gained notoriety is Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who lost to Jordan in a bid for the speaker nomination earlier this month, though he gained the backing of dozens of House Republicans with minimal campaigning for the role. Like Emmer, he also voted to certify the 2020 election.

Also pursuing the nomination is Rep. Byron Donalds, the two-term Florida Republican whose name was thrown out in floor votes for the speakership in January and last week and who has been billed a rising star among conservatives. And lesser-known lawmakers who have thrown their names into the race are Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama and Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania.

To win the nominating contest a candidate must secure a majority of the conference. If no candidate receives a majority, the lowest scoring candidate in each round will be removed from the ballot until a candidate secures the necessary support, according to House GOP rules. After that, the real challenge of getting to 217 votes on the House floor begins.

With the drawn-out speaker standoff, lawmakers and onlookers are clearly growing impatient. McCarthy, who was ousted on Oct. 3, warned on Friday that the party is in “a very bad position” as they head “back to the drawing board” after Jordan’s losses. And according to a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 67% of Americans say the House needs to elect a speaker as soon as possible.

Without a speaker, the House has been effectively at a standstill, unable to approve a resolution supporting Israel or consider aid to the country. Adding to the pressure is a Nov. 17 deadline to fund the government after Congress approved a stopgap measure to buy more time for negotiations on full-year spending bills last month.