October 11, 2023 - Steve Scalise wins Republican vote for House speaker nominee

House Republicans are still far from electing a new House Speaker after their closed-door voting session Wednesday resulted in Rep. Steve Scalise as their speaker-designate.

If all current members are present and voting on the floor, Scalise would need 217 votes to win the speaker's gavel and can only afford to lose four Republican votes. Several lawmakers are looking to throw a wrench into the current majority leader's speaker plans, saying they will instead vote for Rep. Jim Jordan, who ran against Scalise for the nomination and lost.

The floor vote for the speakership, though, will likely not play out until Thursday with the House adjourning for the night.

Here's where that process sits now:

• The GOP elected Scalise for speaker nomination: Scalise won the House GOP’s nomination for speaker during a secret ballot vote Wednesday, beating out Jordan 113-99. The threshold to succeed was a simple majority of the conference rather than the 217 majority needed to win the gavel on the floor.
• House quickly recessed: The House, hours after the nomination vote, gathered at 3 p.m. ET, then recessed — a procedural step.
• Scalise now searches for votes: The speaker designate on Wednesday afternoon was well short of the 217 votes he needs to be elected speaker and began meeting individually with undecided lawmakers.
• Battle for majority leader: If Scalise becomes speaker, he will vacate his role as majority leader, leaving the position up for grabs. Rep. Byron Donalds has thrown his name into the hat as has Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the current House majority whip, is also expected to announce a bid for leader.
• Jordan backs Scalise: Jordan, with several lawmakers throwing their support behind him as they looked to spurn Scalise, said he plans to vote for Scalise on the floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same, a source with direct knowledge told CNN.
• Tough fight for Scalise: GOP Rep. Thomas Massie told reporters he thought “there’s at least 20” members ready to not vote for Scalise on the floor. Several members from the key Freedom Caucus — including Reps. Lauren Boebert, Chip Roy, Bob Good, Barry Moore and Michael Cloud — have already publicly stated they are not yet ready to back Scalise on the floor. Boebert, even after meeting with Scalise, remained a no vote.
• House out until noon tomorrow: Republican leadership announced Wednesday night that no further votes are expected in the House and they would adjourn until noon on Thursday giving Scalise time to search out support from within his conference.

On his way into the Capitol to adjourn the House for the day, Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry told CNN he hopes the House can get a speaker vote on the floor Thursday.

He also said “that’s the hope” when asked if anyone can get the 217 votes required to win the gavel — a number Speaker Designate Steve Scalise is still far from hitting.

Republicans are worried that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is facing grim prospects of becoming speaker, only prolonging the GOP's leadership crisis that has left the House paralyzed and unable to move on any legislation. 

Several senior Republicans see little path to 217 votes after Scalise won just 113 votes in the GOP conference, which includes three delegates who don't have a vote on the House floor.

Making up that deficit in just a matter of days is an extremely tall order — plus a number of hard-right Republicans say they are dead-set against Scalise, when he can only afford to lose four GOP votes on the floor.

Anger is growing in the ranks.

"These folks are destroying our conference and apparently want to be in the minority," said Rep. Don Bacon, who represents a swing Nebraska district. "They don't respect the customs of the House that have gone on for over two centuries."

It remains to be seen if Scalise still goes to the floor and dares Republicans to vote for him — or if he successfully flips holdouts, as he did with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. But he has a long way to go to win a majority vote on the floor, his allies concede. And if he decides to step aside, it's far from clear who else can get 217 votes to be elected speaker. 

Some Republicans say they are not eager to back Scalise.

Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, said he was "ticked off" by the successful effort by Scalise allies to kill his push to change GOP conference rules in order to raise the voting threshold to 217 votes to nominate the speaker candidate. That effort failed, leaving the threshold at a simple majority of the conference and paving the way for Scalise to win the nomination vote on Wednesday.

"I'm preserving my options, but I have strong reservations about what occurred in the last 24 hours," Roy told CNN. "We've talked... I need to talk to some of my other colleagues."

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds is running to become House majority leader, a spokesperson for the Florida congressman said.

The announcement means there could be a three-way race for the No. 2 position in the House GOP Conference. Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern told CNN earlier he was seeking the position. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the current House majority whip, is also expected to announce a bid for leader.

The position would only open up if the current majority leader, Steve Scalise, is able to secure the speakership in a floor vote.

Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who could also join the race for GOP leader, has criticized members for campaigning for Scalise's position while the speaker's role has not yet been solidified.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina told CNN’s Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Wednesday that she will not vote for Speaker designee Steve Scalise on the floor and would instead back Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. 

She later pledged in a separate interview with CNN to vote for Jordan "for several rounds" on the floor should Scalise lack the votes to secure the speaker's gavel.

“I'm talking to different people in different camps and, you know, figuring out where they are. And that would be conservatives, that would be moderates, that would be Democrats, and figuring out what the next steps might be,” she told CNN.

Pressed if she could potentially vote for Scalise down the line, Mace said “not at this time.”

“Given the district that I represent, I can't get behind somebody that attended a White supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” she said, adding that she just learned about his comments last night. “I'm trying to reconcile it, and right now I can't.” 

Mace's comments are a reference Scalise facing intense blowback in 2014 for having given a speech in 2002 — before he entered Congress — to a White supremacist group founded by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. Scalise apologized and said in a statement that speaking to the group “was a mistake I regret, and I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold.”

Mace said she let Scalise know of her opposition Wednesday afternoon but had not yet heard back from him.

Earlier Wednesday, House Republicans voted 113-99 behind closed doors to select Scalise over Jordan as their speaker nominee.

If all current members are present and voting on the floor, Scalise can only stand to lose four Republican votes to gather the 217 needed to win the speaker's gavel.

Members have been advised there are likely no additional votes in the House tonight as Speaker designate Steve Scalise and his team work behind the scenes to earn enough support for a floor vote. 

Scalise will need to gather 217 votes if all members are present to win in a floor vote — a number he currently does not have. He can stand to lose just four votes, meaning the path for a Scalise victory is a narrow one as several in his own party have already announced they will be voting for Jim Jordan, who ran for the GOP nomination and lost to Scalise Wednesday morning.

GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a possible holdout as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise tries to secure the speakership, told reporters that he is mainly concerned about the process for nominating a speaker.

“I talked to Steve. As I said earlier, I was unhappy with the way things unfolded this morning. We should figure this out behind closed doors as a conference before we started moving towards the floor,” he said on Wednesday, later adding that effort “was dismissed by a certain bloc.” 

Roy was one of the lead co-sponsors of a rules change for the Republican conference that would have required the nominee for speaker to get the number of votes required to win outright on the floor. The proposed change was rejected Wednesday morning.

“There was an effort after we did not agree to do that to start moving towards the floor today, and some of us said ‘woah woah, let’s all hold your horses,’ let’s figure out where we are, because we don’t want to be on the floor until we have 217," he said.

Roy added: “I do not expect votes tonight.” 

He refused to say whether Scalise had made any offers to the holdouts, or whether he had made any demands.  

“I’m not talking about any concessions, any asks,” Roy said, and reiterated that at the moment he is concerned about "the way things played out.”

Roy also wouldn’t say who he would vote for: “I will address that whenever we are getting ready to go to the floor.”

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida a member of the House Oversight Committee, said she feels “comfortable” enough to support Speaker nominee Steve Scalise after their conversation Wednesday afternoon.

While Luna said the Louisiana Republican did not make specific commitments to her, he did assure her that he would allow her to “aggressively” do her job. 

“After talking to Representative Scalise, I feel very confident he’s going to allow me to aggressively pursue justice for this country and this nation. And so I’ll be supporting him on the floor,” Luna said.

Scalise has been working to secure the votes necessary to win the speakership in a floor vote. House Republicans selected him earlier Wednesday as their speaker nominee in a closed-door 113-99 vote over Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

But if all current members are present and voting on the floor, Scalise would need 217 votes to win the speaker's gavel and can only afford to lose four Republican votes. House Democrats are expected to back Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.

Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy said that he'll support House Majority Leader Steve Scalise for speaker going forward.

The former speaker noted that he hasn't been involved in any conversations with the holdouts. 

McCarthy also told reporters he was not involved in trying to sway any holdouts to vote for Scalise.