On Wednesday, House Republicans voted to nominate House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) as the next Speaker of the House. The GOP met in a closed-door session where the GOP House members voted for Scalise 113 to 99 over House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Scalise’s candidacy now goes to the House floor for a vote of the full House.
The previous Speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California), was ousted last week when eight disgruntled Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) voted with House Democrats to oust McCarthy.
Congressman Dale Strong (R-AL05) said in a statement following Wednesday’s GOP Caucus vote, “Now more than ever, as our conference selects a new leader, Republicans must prove to the American public we can deliver on the conservative wins they expect from us.”
Border security has become a much bigger issue after Saturday’s violence in Israel showed that terrorism is still a clear and present real danger in this world.
“It is crucial we choose a speaker who will prioritize border security and spending cuts as non-negotiables for the Republican Conference,” Strong said.
Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL02) said ahead of the vote that he would vote for former President Donald Trump on the first ballot and then Jordan on each subsequent ballot.
Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL06) was also supporting Jordan.
“@Jim Jordan is the strong conservative voice we need for the future. I’ll be supporting him for Speaker,” Palmer said on the social media platform X.
Scalise has secured the nomination, but the difficult part will be getting all of those Republicans to vote for him on the floor of the House because even if only Gaetz and his eight rebel legislators break away, given the razor-thin majority that Republicans hold, it would be impossible for him to receive the votes that he needs to actually be installed as the Speaker of the House.
The Democrats will nominate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) for the post.
“I’ve got a long history of bringing people together, uniting Republicans, focusing on the issues that we’ve got to do to address the issues we came here to do to get our country back on track,” Scalise told Fox Business in an interview on Tuesday.
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