“My takeaway is whoever comes out on the majority today we should get behind and get a speaker,” Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) said Wednesday. He said he had been leaning toward Scalise but was impressed with Jordan’s presentation on Tuesday night.
Republicans nevertheless cautioned that they weren’t sure that their winning candidate could hit the 217-vote majority threshold needed to be elected speaker on the House floor. That points to the possibility of another contentious speaker vote, if all Democrats vote for their pick, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.).
Some lawmakers indicated they weren’t yet ready to go along with Scalise, a sign that a more protracted fight could be coming.
“If Jim Jordan does not get the majority within that room, I will go down to the House floor and continue to vote for Jim Jordan,” said Rep. Max Miller (R., Ohio) shortly before the internal vote.
Without the speakership filled, the House has been unable to vote on any legislation, because an acting speaker pro tempore is widely seen as lacking the power to put bills on the floor, given the rules governing his temporary job.
The candidate forum took place a week after eight Republicans joined with Democrats in a vote last Tuesday to oust McCarthy. Outside the Tuesday night meeting this week, McCarthy told reporters he wasn’t running and that he had told colleagues not to nominate him.
Republicans have yet to settle some key questions, such as how to ensure their nominee can get the majority needed to win election in the overall House and whether they plan to push for new spending cuts after a stopgap spending bill expires in mid-November.
Much of the focus on installing a speaker has centered on the eight Republicans who pushed out McCarthy. Jordan’s supporters have said that Jordan is best positioned to bring dissidents into the fold. They tout his history as an outsider who himself rose by bucking the system, in large part through helping found the House Freedom Caucus, a brass-knuckled group that is now the ideological home to many of the dissidents. Jordan has racked up more than 30 public endorsements.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), who precipitated the leadership crisis when he brought the motion to vacate to the floor, has said he would support either Scalise or Jordan. On Wednesday, Rep. Eli Crane (R., Ariz.), another of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, said that he would support either Jordan or Scalise on the floor no matter who he voted for in conference.
Scalise’s supporters have pitched him as best positioned to unify the conference. In part, they draw on the emotional connection he built to many in the conference after coming back from a near-deadly shooting in 2017 during a congressional baseball practice.