Last week, eight Republicans joined all Democrats in getting rid of the former speaker.
The only thing that brought House Republicans together as they left a nearly three-hour conference meeting on Monday night was the need to choose a new speaker right away.
There has been a lot of talk lately about whether or not to raise the bar needed to get a candidate on the House floor. This is because the Republicans are about to hold their closed-door speaker election.
In the middle of an election, I don’t think we should change the rules. That doesn’t make sense to me. “I also think it’s a good idea for members to have their last names called out and have to say them out loud,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who is supporting Majority Leader Steve Scalise for Speaker. “Secret ballot accomplishes very little, you know, other than gives you an opportunity to freely express yourself without being made known.”
However, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., who is in charge of the realistic Main Street Caucus, said he was moving towards supporting the change but had not yet decided. “If it’s going to take us four days to get to 218, I think everybody should agree that burning that time on the floor is suboptimal.” Johnson hasn’t said who he will vote for in public yet.
It will be a secret vote for the House Republicans to choose their speaker on Wednesday morning. It was told to Fox News Digital that the leaders of the House GOP are thinking about changing the rules so that temporary wins need 217 or 218 votes instead of just a simple majority.
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After 15 public rounds over three days, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was elected in a full House vote. He had been chosen behind closed doors by a simple majority of the House GOP. Eight members of his own party and House Democrats got rid of him last week.
After their closed-door meeting on Monday, several lawmakers told Fox News Digital that the vote on raising that bar would likely happen before the closed-door election.
Kevin Hern, the head of the Republican Study Committee, said he was learning the case for the rule. Hern said that the crises in the Middle East made it even more important for Congress to look like they were all on the same page about going forward.
“The American people are tired of chaos right now, if you will.” “Seeing chaos in the Middle East, in Israel, and now here, I don’t think it’s good for American morale,” he said.
A Republican from Michigan named Rep. John James signed a letter asking for the rule change so that the party could “very quickly get back to things that most Americans are concerned with.”
“We need to secure our border, we need to address our debt, we need to address our spending – and in order to do that, we have to make sure that before we go to the floor, we have enough votes to have a Republican Speaker,” he stated.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who is in charge of the Rules Committee and backed McCarthy for speaker, said that members shouldn’t have to change conference rules to show the public that they are united.
“We didn’t always go to class with the winner, but I would never have thought not to vote for that person on the floor.” Even though I strongly disagreed with them, the conference made the choice, and they should be the speaker. “Let’s do that again,” he said.
He didn’t say it wasn’t possible, but rookie Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said the closed-door vote should only last seven days before it has to be brought to the floor.
“It’ll probably lend itself to some unity in the conference, but I think it’s also prudent to have some sort of escape hatch if that strategy doesn’t result in a bonafide speaker,” LaLota stated.
At the same time, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who supports Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for speaker as chairman of the judiciary, also suggested that members should have an extra week to vote for speaker.
“I don’t think we’re gonna get a speaker this week at all,” said Miller.
