Rep. Steve Scalise is dropping out of the speaker’s race after House Republicans failed to coalesce behind him in the aftermath of Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.
House Republicans met behind closed-doors for more than two hours Thursday afternoon, where the Majority leader urged his detractors to explain their opposition to him in front of the conference. After the meeting ended, Scalise huddled with those opposed to him in his office. And Republicans scheduled a second members-only conference meeting for Thursday evening.
But the opposition to Scalise as the next speaker only grew Thursday, with roughly 20 Republicans publicly opposing him. Scalise needs a majority of the House to be elected speaker, meaning he can only afford to lose four votes.
And he was the frontrunner. The only other person running was Jordan, with way less support.
With how fractioned the House Republicans are right now, Democrat support for Hakeem Jeffries technically makes him the frontrunner right now even without the majority.
Not that that matters, since a majority is needed. It will make next month and the expiry of the 45 day budget bill extension interesting if there’s no Speaker to even bring it to a vote.
How many Republicans would be to vote for Jeffries? Seems like about 15-20 Democrats would need to support Scalise for him to get the vote.
Exactly. Less than a hands worth are needed to flip things the other way. Let’s hope there’s still enough Tuesday-type Republicans to get that to happen.