One day after winning the Republican nomination for House speaker, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has dropped out of the speakership race.
“It’s been quite a journey. And there’s still a long way to go. I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee,” Scalise said. “This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a Speaker and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there. And there’s still schisms that have to get resolved.”
“There’s some folks that really need to look in the mirror over the next couple of days and decide, are we going to get it back on track or are they going to try to pursue their own agenda. You can’t do both,” he added.
From The Hill:
Scalise narrowly prevailed in a secret ballot internal GOP election on Wednesday, but it was clear almost immediately that he would struggle to get the 217 votes needed on the House floor.
Momentum swung further against him, and as Thursday progressed an increasing number of Republicans declared they would not cast their votes for him.
It’s not clear where the fractured Republican conference will go next, as the House closes in on 10 days without an elected Speaker.
Scalise had won a secret ballot election against Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), 113 votes to Jordan’s 99. Even though Jordan backed Scalise after the vote, enough of his supporters weren’t willing to follow suit.
Republicans had been skeptical that a new speaker would be chosen quickly.
“I think there’s some [lawmakers] that have some problems with past behavior and each other, and so I think it’s going to take more than one day to get this done,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) told Fox News Digital.
“I don’t know if by the end of this week, we will have a speaker. If you were to ask me a couple days ago, pre-Israel being horrifically attacked by Hamas, I would have told you that it would have been a month before we had a speaker,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said Tuesday night after a closed-door GOP meeting.
All I can say is that Republicans need to get their act together and elect a speaker. With the war going on in Israel, the invasion at the southern border, the economy in a mess, and the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, now is not the time for division in the Republican Party.
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