
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has been selected by House Republicans as their third candidate for speaker in as many weeks.
Emmer was the most voted-for member of the current leadership group and currently holds the position of House GOP whip. He narrowly won the nomination in a secret vote, but he confronts the same obstacles as outgoing Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other speaker candidates. It is also not certain whether the party will support him.
Any candidate for speaker of the House, or nearly 217 if all members are present, must win a vote on the House floor with the backing of a majority of those voting and present.
Three weeks after a vote to remove then-Speaker McCarthy sent the chamber into chaos, Emmer was chosen after House Republicans totally restarted the nomination process.
Both House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise were designated as the party’s nominees, but they later withdrew their names from consideration after receiving insufficient support to prevail on the floor. Scalise withdrew prior to making a floor attempt, and Jordan was defeated after three votes by the entire House.
The House cannot introduce legislation to fund the government past November 17 or send help to Israel and Ukraine until a speaker is chosen.
Emmer’s bind
Emmer’s leadership responsibilities include tabulating results and persuading members to support the party’s legislative agenda. Since he declared his intention to run, he has been considered a likely frontrunner. However, he might still run into opposition from the conference’s hard-core conservatives.
One is that, unlike someone like Jordan, he is not as strongly allied with or supported by former president Trump. He and Rep. Austin Scott were the only two candidates for speaker in this round of voting who cast ballots to certify the results of the 2020 election. He has leadership experience already, so he contributes that to the position. The members who have demanded a new face or a complete leadership reset, however, may make him a target because of his position.
Republicans held a roll call following the nomination vote to determine Emmer’s support. Nearly 20 legislators voted against Emmer’s candidacy, according to NPR.
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., declared that despite voting against Jordan’s nomination, he would “enthusiastically” endorse Emmer. However, he claimed that the conference was still a “fractured lot,” and he questioned Emmer’s ability to build up the required support.
“What I just saw within the room illustrates to me that there are actually some people that are quite dug in and aren’t going to support the current designee,” Womack explained.
After the vote, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., was more upbeat. He claimed Emmer was asking holdouts questions and believed he was “moving the room.”
He is seated at the microphone. People are coming forward with their concerns. And he’s engaging them head-on without being hostile. Johnson informed the media. “I think he’s winning converts.”
Trump and the opposition on the right
Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, declared to media that he would vote against Emmer’s candidacy if it came to the floor.
“I can’t go alongside putting one of those most moderate members of the whole Republican conference into the speaker’s chair,” Banks stated. “That betrays the traditional values that I come here to fight for.”
Former President Trump referred to Emmer as a “RINO” on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday in a comment that could have hurt Emmer’s chances of winning. Emmer “is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters,” according to Trump, who stated on Monday that he was “trying to stay out of” the contest for speaker, and backing him would be a “tragic mistake.” Emmer was also criticized by Steve Bannon, a supporter of Trump, on his podcast on Tuesday, calling him “basically a Democrat.”
The next steps are still unclear
Whether Emmer will send his candidacy to the floor on Tuesday or keep trying to change votes is unclear. Some members are trying to figure out how to make sure the final vote goes well.
The Unity Pledge was proposed on Friday by Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., who urged his colleagues to “put our differences aside & come together.” According to the vow, members will back whoever is chosen as the party’s nominee when it is put to the vote.
everything we currently have, according to Flood, “is a complete collapse of what we’ve done for 200 years.” “The unity promise only states that we will support the speaker candidate who receives the most votes from our conference when we take the floor. We have been doing it for 200 years. It’s straightforward yet regrettably necessary.