House GOP fail to unite around Scalise, throwing speakership bid into uncertainty

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s bid to become speaker was in doubt Thursday evening, with a handful of holdouts still unconvinced he is the best pick to lead the Republican conference.

GOP lawmakers debated behind closed doors for more than three hours at the Capitol — but emerged having made almost no progress in uniting behind a pick to wield the gavel.

Scalise (R-La.) was voted the House Republican nominee for speaker by a narrow 113-99 margin during a Wednesday conference meeting, beating Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who later endorsed his erstwhile rival for the job.

But dozens of members have said they will remain loyal to Jordan or Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who on Oct. 3 became the first House Speaker in history to be removed after eight Republicans joined with every Democrat to vote him out.

While Jordan allies like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) cited his track record of delivering on conservative priorities like cutting spending, McCarthy supporters like Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) expressed more concern about behaving as a governable majority.

“It’s not an easy task,” McCarthy told reporters on Thursday when asked about Scalise’s path forward.

“He told a lot of people he was going to be at 150 [conference votes] and he wasn’t there.”

When asked if Scalise could rally sufficient support to be speaker, McCarthy answered: “It’s possible; it’s a big hill, though.”

The House currently has 221 Republican members and 212 Democratic members, along with two vacancies, for a total of 433.

If all members are present and vote for someone by name, Scalise must earn at least 217 votes in order to become speaker, though any “present” votes or absences would lower his threshold for victory.

By the end of Thursday’s conference meeting, members were split between those who wanted to force a vote on the House floor and those who wanted to continue with private deliberations.

“Let’s do the messy work of governing and leadership selection in front of the people,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the charge to expel McCarthy from leadership, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“We elected & removed McCarthy with total transparency. Let’s replace him in the same manner,” he said.

“Kevin McCarthy had to go 15 rounds. The next speaker should be able to do the same thing,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told reporters as she headed into the meeting.

However, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) blasted the eight Republican “traitors” who voted to remove McCarthy from the speaker’s chair and “paralyzed” the Republican conference, saying “there’s just another eight like them” ready to derail Scalise or whoever leads next.

He stressed that Democratic votes would be necessary for any speaker nominee, but lamented that their caucus members “haven’t offered jack.”

Other members like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) were equivocal.

“The high-stakes drama that is trying to be pushed out there about, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s world events going on, so therefore, just pick any pilot for the plane,’” Roy chided. 

“You guys want to board a plane and just go grab the guy off row 11 and say, ‘You saddle up; you’re in the seat.’ That’s not a good model.”

Scalise emerged from the meeting claiming that his “support continues to grow,” though more meetings were scheduled before any action would be taken on the House floor.

That move could also lead to Scalise losing support if voting drags on, as Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) all said they had only pledged their support to the majority leader on the first ballot.

House GOP leadership confiscated members’ cell phones to maintain some privacy — but that didn’t stop members from dishing to the press when breaking for the restroom or leaving abruptly to conduct other business.

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) burst out of the Thursday meeting before even one hour had passed, complaining that it was a “waste of time” and saying he would not support Scalise’s speakership.

“It’s a bad episode of ‘Veep’ that’s turning into ‘House of Cards,’” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) also snarked.

According to Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who got behind Scalise on Thursday after having initially backed Jordan, an unnamed GOP member quipped: “I don’t think the Lord Jesus himself could get 217 votes.”

“There is no consensus candidate for speaker,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted on X after having left the session early.

“We need to stay in Washington till we figure this out. I will no longer be voting for scalise [sic]. I don’t even think we make it to the floor.”

Former President Donald Trump also eroded some of Scalise’s base of support from afar with an appearance on Fox News Radio after having endorsed Jordan to replace McCarthy.

“Well, I like Steve. I like both of them very much. But the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer,” Trump told Brian Kilmeade.

“And this is tremendous stress.”

“I like Jim. I think Jim’s great. I like them both, by the way. But I think Jim is a great, tremendous fighter, a tough guy,” Trump added.

“But I will certainly be with anybody that, you know, I get along with. Frankly, I get along with all of them. But, I mean, the one thing with Steve, he’s got to get well, he’s got to get well, he’s got to get strong.”