House Republicans Select New Speaker Nominee, New Nominee Ends Candidacy Four Hours Later

Welcome to another week in our nation’s capital! To catch you up on everything, here’s what’s been going on in Congress:

• Three weeks ago, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy was removed from the House speakership when eight right-wing Republicans voted against keeping him in the position because he’d agreed to a compromise with the White House on a bill to temporarily fund the government. (There are 221 Republicans in the chamber’s majority and 217 votes are required to elect a speaker.)

• Two weeks ago, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise—a prominent conservative and longtime member of party leadership—was chosen as the party’s post-McCarthy speaker candidate in an internal caucus ballot, but failed to reach 217 votes and dropped out.

• Last week, right-wing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan was chosen as the party’s post-Scalise speaker candidate in an internal caucus ballot. But he failed to reach 217 votes, in part because of members who were upset that Jordan supporters hadn’t voted for Scalise, and dropped out.

Now that you’re up to date, can you guess what happened on Tuesday? Well, Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer was selected as the party’s post-Jordan speaker candidate in an internal caucus ballot. But before he could even proceed to a floor vote, reports emerged that he’d have trouble reaching 217 votes—in part because of members upset that his supporters hadn’t voted for Jordan. Donald Trump also attacked Emmer for being insufficiently loyal to the MAGA cause, a charge that relates to reports that Emmer told swing-district candidates not to talk too much about Trump when he (Emmer) was running the National Republican Campaign Committee in 2022. (It was probably good advice.) Then, late on Tuesday afternoon, Emmer ended his candidacy.

Very roughly speaking, what’s happened is that McCarthy was unseated for not being extreme enough, Scalise was rejected for being part of the “establishment” despite his extremity, Jordan was rejected for being too extreme and insufficiently supportive of Scalise, and Emmer was rejected for being too moderate and insufficiently supportive of Jordan.

Anyway, Tom Emmer was (well, still is) a former hockey player who represents an exurban and rural area north and west of the Twin Cities. Next up—maybe—is Shreveport-area Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, who finished second to Emmer in Tuesday’s initial internal voting. In fitting the established pattern, though, Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reports that Johnson might be too far right to win the support of moderates, and that, like Scalise, he’s also considered suspect to some far-righters because he’s been in party leadership. A candidate forum for Johnson and other aspirants—the second such forum of the last two days—is set for Tuesday night. Can you say “back to the drawing board” if no one ever actually pushed their chair back and got up from the drawing board?