House Republicans are set to hear Tuesday from the two declared candidates for Speaker: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Neither Scalise nor Jordan — nor former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who on Monday left the door open to a second bid — has emerged as a clear front-runner.
The Tuesday evening forum comes as the GOP enters a critical stretch, during which the conference must select a nominee and hold a Speaker election on the House floor — all while eyeing a fast-approaching funding deadline and war in Israel.
Follow along with live updates below.
Buck says more Speaker candidates could arise ‘if this becomes a mess’
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) left the candidate forum not excited about either declared candidate, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) or House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“I’m not thrilled with either candidate. And I don’t know that they are the only candidates who are going to arise. I think that we will have other candidates that step forward if this becomes a mess tomorrow,” he said.
He later added, “I think at three or four in the afternoon, if you don’t see white smoke, we’ve got a mess.”
Buck was one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
— Aris Folley
Massie sees difference between Speaker races
“January was a coronation that was really hard to pull off. And this is a legitimate Speaker race. So I think there’s a difference,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said leaving the candidate forum Tuesday.
Democrats nominate Jeffries for Speaker
Democrats on Tuesday picked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as their nominee to be Speaker.
“Under the extreme MAGA Republican majority, the House of Representatives has become engulfed in unprecedented chaos and dysfunction. It’s time to get back to the business of the American people,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Jeffries will go up against Republicans’ eventual nominee on the floor.
Democrats voted in lockstep for Jeffries through all 15 rounds of the Speaker battle that eventually gave former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the gavel.
Greene still undecided on Speaker
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) left the candidate forum saying she is still undecided on who to support Wednesday.
Greene supported former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) both in his initial Speakership race and against the motion to vacate that ousted him.
She also said Tuesday’s forum featured a discussion about Israel and Ukraine funding.
“Separation on Israel and Ukraine funding would have to happen,” she said.
Rep. Nancy Mace wears shirt with red letter ‘A’ to Speaker’s forum
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) walked into the Speaker candidate forum Tuesday wearing a white T-shirt with the red letter “A” on it, an apparent nod to a scarlet letter used to symbolize the public shaming of one’s mistake.
Mace was one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and has received blowback from some GOP lawmakers.
Mace said Sunday she intends to support Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) bid for Speaker.
— Miranda Nazzaro
McCarthy: GOP conference ‘shouldn’t come out’ until nominee has votes to win on floor
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the conference should remain behind closed doors until members know their nominee can win on the House floor.
“We went 15 rounds on the floor, I think that where the world is today, they shouldn’t come out of there until they decide that they have enough votes for whomever they bring to the floor to become Speaker.”
Roy proposes raising number of votes required to be Speaker nominee
Text of a proposed House GOP conference amendment from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) aims to temporarily increase the number of votes a candidate must receive from fellow Republicans to become the conference’s Speaker nominee.
Under Roy’s proposal, a candidate must receive 217 votes in the conference — a number that would be enough to win the majority of the full House.
Republicans had been pushing for such a proposal with an eye toward avoiding a repeat of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) 15-ballot, four-day saga to clinch the gavel.
The proposal allows a candidate who receives the votes of a majority of the conference but fewer than 217 votes several chances to answer questions from their fellow Republicans.
If at the end of the process the candidate still can’t win 217 votes then they will be withdrawn and someone else nominated.
McCarthy asks Republicans not to nominate him for Speaker
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he asked members not to nominate him for Speaker.
“I asked the members in there not to nominate me,” he said outside the GOP’s candidate forum.
McCarthy immediately after his ouster last week said he would not run again for Speaker.
But on Monday he had seemingly opened the door to a second run for Speaker, and some reports emerged earlier Tuesday that his allies were eyeing a path for him to regain the gavel.
McClintock proposes new rules for members of House GOP
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) is proposing removing members from the House Republican Conference if they take certain steps against the party.
Under to the proposal, obtained by The Hill, members would be removed if they don’t back the conference’s nominee for Speaker on the House floor, vote contrary to the conference on rules votes or sign a discharge petition put forward by Democrats.
A member could be reinstated by a two-thirds vote of the conference.
The proposal comes after eight Republicans voted with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker and after a group of 20 Republican holdouts dragged his initial election out to 15 ballots and four days.
House Republicans are heading into the candidate forum now to help determine their nominee for Speaker.
ICYMI: Speaker race has no clear favorite as GOP tensions rise
House Republicans met last night for the first time since leaving town following Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) historic ouster as Speaker.
They left that closed-door sit down with the Speaker’s race wide open.
Internal GOP rule could prove to be wildcard
Some House Republicans are eyeing a change to the rules to temporarily raise the threshold needed to nominate a Speaker, hoping to avoid the sort of days-long, multi-ballot election that took place in January.
More than 100 House Republicans have signed onto a letter asking for the change.
It’s unclear whether the proposal will come up for a vote tonight or what the outcome will be.
But such a change could drastically alter the dynamics of the GOP Speaker race.
Opponents of changing the rule say that those blocking a nominee from getting enough support to win on the floor should not be able to hide behind anonymity in conference and should air their grievances and reasons publicly.
Biden confirms Americans among those held hostage by Hamas
President Biden confirmed Tuesday that American citizens are among those being held hostage by Hamas in the wake of an unprecedented coordinated attack by the militant group over the weekend that killed thousands of people in Israel.
The president also said in remarks at the White House that the number of Americans killed in the attacks had risen to 14.
“We now know that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas,” Biden said.
“I’ve directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts,” he said. “Because as president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.”
The crisis in Israel is putting increasing pressure on House Republicans to quickly select a Speaker.
— Alex Gangitano
Judiciary panel continues work while Jordan runs for Speaker
A source familiar told The Hill on Tuesday that the Judiciary Committee is continuing its work while its chairman, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), runs for Speaker.
The panel is interviewing an ICE official Tuesday and a former DHS official Wednesday.
Unlike in January, when no committees had yet been formed in the absence of a Speaker, the panels that were formed since then are still able to work.
McHenry on helping Israel: ‘If we need to act as a government we will’
Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) appeared to open the door Tuesday to the House taking action to aid Israel.
“They’re in my prayers, but if we need to act as a government we will,” McHenry told reporters at the Capitol in response to a question about whether the U.S. can do anything for Israel at the moment.
McHenry’s powers as acting Speaker are limited — but also murky.
The crisis in Israel has greatly increased pressure on the House to pick a new Speaker quickly.
Speaker candidates meet with moderate GOP group
Both declared candidates for Speaker — Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — met with members of the moderate Republican Governance Group (formerly known as the Tuesday Group) Tuesday afternoon.
— Emily Brooks
House GOP debates ditching ‘motion to vacate’ rule that unseated McCarthy
The rule that allowed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to single-handedly call for a vote ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has become a key issue for Republicans as they grapple over who should replace him.
Some are intent on changing the rule, known as a “motion to vacate,” so a handful of House Republicans can never again join with the minority to force a Speaker out and throw the House into chaos. But others who fought for the single-member threshold are defending it.
A group of 45 House Republicans — just over a fifth of the GOP conference — signed on to an open letter last week calling for changes to the “motion to vacate” rule, expressing frustration with the eight GOP lawmakers who joined with Democrats to remove McCarthy.
“It is our responsibility to identify the right person at this moment to lead us into the future to achieve the conservative policy objectives that we and the American people all share,” the members wrote. “We cannot allow our majority to be dictated to by the alliance between the chaos caucus and the minority party that will do nothing more than guarantee the failure of our next Speaker.”
— Emily Brooks
House Speaker chaos threatens GOP majority
The political chaos surrounding the vacant Speakership in the House threatens to upend Republican efforts to hold onto their slim majority in next year’s elections.
Questions over who would succeed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took on a new urgency this weekend amid an escalating war between Israel and Hamas terrorists.
The air of havoc surrounding the GOP’s ouster of McCarthy at a time when a critical U.S. ally is at war could reverberate through some of the most competitive districts next year, such as in New York.
“Having a Speakership sitting vacant at the moment is obviously not good,” said Tom Doherty, a New York-based GOP strategist. “It doesn’t serve us or our foreign partners any good not to have a Speaker of the House.”
— Julia Manchester
Speaker race has no clear favorite as GOP tensions rise
The race for the Speakership is wide open as House Republicans head into a high-stakes stretch this week.
The House GOP conference Tuesday is set to hear from its two declared candidates for Speaker: Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — neither of whom have emerged as a front-runner in the race.
Adding to the dynamics, deposed Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opened the door to a second stint as Speaker on Monday, as lawmakers deal with the reality of a House unable to act in response to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that took place over the weekend.
But McCarthy’s detractors appeared in no mood to allow for his return, and neither Jordan nor Scalise seemed to have a lock on the closed-door conference vote planned for Wednesday — leaving the House GOP without a clear path through the Speaker conundrum.
“We’re kind of like a scattergram — we’re all over the map in terms of the way forward,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a leading appropriator, adding to reporters that talks were “civil” during a conference meeting Monday evening, but that there are still “hard feelings” after McCarthy’s ouster.
“This is a hard conference to lead,” Womack continued. “There’s a lot of free agents in there, a lot of people that just aren’t going to forfeit their individual voting card. … But I think right now, the need for the conference is to function more like a team.”
— Mychael Schnell and Al Weaver