Kevin McCarthy wins speaker race after a grueling 4 days and 15 rounds of voting

Table Of Content

• Rep. Grace Napolitano, a veteran Democrat from Norwalk, to retire from Congress
• House Speaker Mike Johnson faces a revolt from his party's right flank
• McHenry dodges reporters
• October 9, 2023 - Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise run to replace Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker
• Floor votes for speaker
• "One more time": House heads to 15th vote after stunning defeat for McCarthy in 14th round

House Republicans are expected to vote within their conference for a new speaker nominee this evening. A vote on the next House speaker won't happen Tuesday night, according to the Democratic Whip's office. Scalise, if elected speaker, will inherit the same narrow Republican majority that must deal with a Senate and the White House controlled by Democrats. And the House, where the GOP holds a slim majority, has paused proceedings as he doesn't yet have the votes to get to 217. McCarthy, who was recently ousted as speaker, cast doubt on Scalise's efforts to gather the votes needed to win the speakership. Self was a member of the group of holdouts in the nomination process for McCarthy in January.

Rep. Grace Napolitano, a veteran Democrat from Norwalk, to retire from Congress

GOP Rep. Don Bacon, from a swing district in Nebraska, attacked the eight Republicans who voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker ahead of a closed-door meeting of the conference Monday. The seven-term congressman said there was a big difference between the 20 GOP members who were initially opposed to Kevin McCarthy during the January speakership vote and the 20 lawmakers — now 22 after the second round of voting — who are opposed to Jordan. It's that distinction that Womack believes will ultimately deny Jordan the speaker's gavel. Jordan, who lost a second floor vote for the speakership Wednesday, said "yes" when asked if he was going to stay in the race. Gaetz and seven other Republicans, representing less than 2% of the country, were enough to oust McCarthy against the wishes of 95% of the Republican caucus, with Democrats uniformly hewing to the bipartisan tradition of refusing to support a speaker of the opposite party. In other words, the Republican firebrands, who think the worst sin imaginable is to work with Democrats, voted with Democrats to oust their leader.

House Speaker Mike Johnson faces a revolt from his party's right flank

Interim House Speaker Patrick McHenry didn't rule out supporting a GOP resolution to expand his powers in the role, telling CNN his focus is on getting Rep. Jim Jordan elected after the speaker designate lost his second vote for the gavel on Wednesday. As Rep. Jim Jordan meets with a number of allies in hopes of swaying key holdouts to his speakership bid, GOP sources say his opposition could grow if the votes continue over multiple rounds of ballots. “Today’s ruling is a victory for the voters of the 20th Congressional District, who will now have the opportunity to select the candidate of their choice in the March 5th election,” Fong said in a statement. Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told reporters after the meeting that Scalise and Jordan are "two good leaders" with "good perspectives on where the party needs to go." Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is serving his second term in Congress, also voted against certifying the election.

McHenry dodges reporters

Thirty-three of the "other" votes were cast for McCarthy, Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said. Johnson continued to earn the most votes with 97, followed by Donalds with 31 votes, Green with 21 votes and Williams with 20 votes. Republicans not on the ballot earned 34 "other" votes, while there were three "present" votes, according to Rep. Randy Weber of Texas. The race now is a head-to-head contest between Donalds and Johnson as the GOP conference moves on to a third ballot, according to Stefanik. Our coverage of the latest developments in the House speaker race continues here.

“I voted for Jim Jordan in the conference election yesterday and I remain committed to doing everything I can to help elect him the next Speaker of the House. He is a conservative fighter and a leader who can unite our party,” Banks said in a statement moments after Scalise withdrew. GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, leaving the ongoing meeting in Rep. Tom Emmer's office, told reporters that these talks over the House speakership are "the most hopeful set of conversations we've had in weeks." Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan, on the other hand, said after the meeting he would “take a look at” voting for Jordan but doubted there would be another floor vote soon. Buchanan backed Jordan for speaker on the first round but flipped on the second ballot yesterday.

Scalise said that he wanted to speak to all the Republican members, rather than just individually or in smaller groups, to try to "bring our conference together." Jordan deferred questions about McHenry stepping up as a temporary speaker, emphasizing instead that Scalise has obtained House Republicans' nomination. Nehls said he didn't see any one candidate whom Republican members can agree on. On his way into the meeting, Scalise said they will continue discussions with members.

US House speaker race: Who's in, who's out - Reuters

US House speaker race: Who's in, who's out.

Posted: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Rogers storms out of GOP meeting, rips 'eight traitors' who voted to oust McCarthy

These are the House Republicans running for speaker - CNN

These are the House Republicans running for speaker.

Posted: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

According to the rules of the Republican conference, once candidates are nominated — in alphabetical order — if none of the candidates win a majority of votes, the candidate who receives the lowest number of votes will be dropped from the ballot for the next round. "Congress and the American people needed a Republican Speaker three weeks ago," Palmer said in a statement Tuesday morning. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that there was "zero" discussion among Democrats during their caucus meeting on Monday night about helping Emmer.

Floor votes for speaker

After Jordan’s second failed floor vote for the speakership, Joyce told CNN he wants to have a meeting of the House GOP Conference to combat misinformation and make his case for the idea before his colleagues. After Scalise dropped out of the race and Jordan went on to become the nominee last week, Scalise immediately committed to voting for Jordan and encouraged his supporters to do the same. But, Scalise rebuffed a request from Jordan to give a nominating speech on the floor on Tuesday. And after Jordan failed to secure the speakership on the first ballot, Scalise was noncommittal about helping Jordan further, a source added. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the majority whip and the highest ranking Republican running for speaker, is one of the two who voted to certify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6.

Tulare County dairy farmer Rep. David Valadao has been in office since 2013, save for a two-year interlude when he was temporarily ousted by Democratic challenger T.J. Valadao regained his seat in 2020 and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment after the Jan. 6 insurrection. As in the 13th District to the north, economic issues and inflation will likely be top of mind for these voters. Issues regarding water — including water access for agriculture, as well as water quality and water availability in wells — will also be crucial, along with healthcare access issues, said Thomas Holyoke, a professor of political science at Fresno State University. Wasserman stressed that there were still open questions about the strength of Biden’s support among Latino voters.

If Jordan does win them over, it’s still not nearly enough to secure the speakership, given 22 Republicans voted against him on the second ballot and more are expected to oppose him on the third ballot. But Jordan is hoping to show some sign of progress ahead of the next vote, now planned for Friday. “The House needs to get back to work, and that means we've got to select the speaker, and you saw strong resolve to make sure that we can come together quickly and get our speaker elected,” he told reporters. Washington — After a stunning turn of events Friday night that forced a 15th ballot in the race for House speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, finally secured enough votes shortly after midnight to become speaker of the House.

His emissaries sidled up to holdouts, and grueling negotiations proceeded in the GOP whip’s office down the hall. Through defeat after defeat, McCarthy remained determined to persuade Republicans to end the paralyzing debate that has blighted his new GOP majority. “This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader,” said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

But Scalise’s allies feel like they did far more to rally around Jordan than Jordan did when Scalise initially won the nomination last week. The race has attracted a large field of six Democrats, three Republicans and two third-party candidates, according to filings with the L.A. The other Democratic candidates include Citrus Community College Trustee Mary Ann Lutz, state Sen. Susan Rubio of Baldwin Park and personal injury lawyer Greg Hafif. The Republican candidates are Elvira Moreno, Pedro Antonio Casas and Daniel Bocic Martinez, who also ran for Napolitano’s seat in 2022.

He also said that if his preferred candidate doesn’t get the votes then he would support Rep. Steve Scalise. The move by Gaetz, and McCarthy's failure to claim the gavel again, left the chamber on the cusp of an adjournment for the weekend, with Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina offering a motion to halt the proceedings for the day and adjourn. But just as Republicans appeared to have enough votes to do so, commotion ensued on the floor, and Republicans rushed to change their votes to hold another round. McCarthy told his GOP colleagues to take their seats for "one more time." Following the forum, Rep. Pete Sessions — one of the eight candidates — called the meeting “productive” and said it “really helped getting us prepared for tomorrow,” when the conference will vote for its third candidate to succeed Kevin McCarthy. Jordan lost a second vote for his speakership bid today, with 22 Republicans voting against him.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann is no longer in the running, according to Rep. Elise Stefanik, having been eliminated in the first round of voting. Williams was eliminated from the race as the lowest vote-earner, and Green withdrew his candidacy. “The personalities involved are different,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., said in an interview yesterday, referring to Gaetz, who led the effort to oust McCarthy and had been his chief antagonist for months. "It’s going to be a really good conversation with our full conference," he said as he walked in. "This business of just having a struggle session doesn't really work," he said.