House speaker race: Republicans to select a candidate to replace McCarthy in closed-door vote

House Republicans are gathering behind closed doors on Wednesday morning to select their candidate for speaker after ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster last week. 

GOP lawmakers are expected to hold their inter-party election at 10 a.m. after getting briefed on the unfolding crisis in Israel – which adds a sense of urgency as lawmakers scramble to restore order in Congress.

“I don’t know if by the end of this week we will have a speaker. If you were to ask me a couple days ago, pre-Israel being horrifically attacked by Hamas, I would have told you that it would have been a month before we had a speaker,” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., told reporters after a closed-door GOP meeting on Tuesday night. 

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The two candidates formally in the race are Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., was doubtful a candidate will be chosen by the end of the day.

“I think there’s some [lawmakers] that have some problems with past behavior and each other, and so I think it’s going to take more than one day to get this done,” Murphy told Fox News Digital.

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Another factor in the mix is an expected rules vote ahead of the vote on whether to raise the threshold for choosing a speaker within the GOP conference. 

Under the current rules, a speaker nominee is chosen by a simple majority vote of the party. But more than 100 lawmakers have signed onto a letter calling for that threshold to be 217 — a majority of the House overall.

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“That’s first thing we’ve got to consider is our rules, that’s going to be tomorrow morning, I believe,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who led calls for the rule change along with Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Asked if he believes that rule with pass, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told reporters, “I hope it does.”

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“I think that if we’re going to have a mess, we should have it in private,” Buck said.

It’s not yet clear when the full House will vote on a speaker. That vote is likely to be scheduled sometime after Republicans pick their candidate.