House delays speaker vote because of Republican Scalise holdouts

The House adjourned for a brief recess on Wednesday, delaying a vote to elect a new House speaker until Republicans can secure enough support for Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was chosen as the party’s nominee during a closed-door meeting earlier in the afternoon.

House Republicans elected Scalise as the GOP nominee in a 113-99 vote, defeating Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) in a secret ballot election on Wednesday afternoon. Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene for a full vote on the matter sometime this week, although it remains unclear when that may happen.

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“We’re gonna recess subject to the call the chair, and we’ll see,” Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) told reporters. “The speaker designee has the right to put his votes together for the floor and make sure the timing is right.”

McHenry added that this was a planned pro-forma session. The House could still come back later tonight and start the vote for speaker, but everything is still up in the air.

House leaders postponed the vote, initially scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, after several rank-and-file Republicans came out in opposition to Scalise’s nomination, vowing instead to vote for Jordan despite him losing the nomination.

“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-OH).

However, Jordan is supporting Scalise’s nomination and plans to vote for him on the House floor. He is encouraging colleagues to do the same, even offering to give the majority leader a nominating speech on the House floor as a way to convince any holdouts, according to a source familiar.

At least seven GOP members have already indicated they will vote for someone other than Scalise for speaker, including Reps. Miller, Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Chip Roy (R-TX), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Greene said she means no disrespect to Scalise, but his health is a big concern for her and she deson’t believes that Scalise can battle the treatable form of blood cancer with which he was diagnosed in September while also being speaker.

“Speaker of the House is is such a demanding position,” she said. “It’s the hardest job in Congress. It’s one of the hardest jobs in the country. And we really have to have someone that can dedicate themselves fully to this job. And that’s Jim Jordan. And I’ll argue we had Kevin McCarthy, was dedicating himself fully to the job, and he should have never been ousted last week. So, I’ll be voting for Jim Jordan on the House floor.”

Scalise can only afford to lose four votes as Democrats are expected to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) — setting the stage for a multi-round election similar to the one lawmakers experienced in January, when it took McCarthy 15 rounds to secure the leadership position.

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who was the former speaker’s main antagonist, said he plans to vote for Scalise and urged his colleagues to do the same.

Gaetz led a group of eight Republicans in joining all Democrats to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker last Tuesday. Centrist Republicans had floated the idea of nominating McCarthy for speaker again, but the former speaker asked his colleagues not to do so.