It’s official, or as official as anything can be in the chaos that is the current Republican-controlled House of Representatives: Rep. Jim Jordan is not going to be the next speaker of the House.
Who will be the next speaker, however, is anybody’s guess at this point.
At least five Republicans have confirmed that they plan to run for the speaker’s chair, CNN reported, with no less than three others considering it. (Needless to say, those number are subject to change.)
At about 4:00 p.m. in Washington, CNN listed the five official candidates as Jack Bergman of Michigan, Byron Donalds of Florida, Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and Austin Scott of Georgia.
At roughly the same time, a sixth — Texas Rep. Pete Sessions — threw his hat into the ring with a post to X.
Also said to be thinking about a run were Jodey Arrington of Texas, Mark Green of Tennessee and Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
Current Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry of North Carolina has said all along that he wasn’t interested in becoming the actual House speaker, and that appears to remain the case. He told reporters Friday that it was “not my intention” to enter the contest.
As it currently stands, according to CNN, the House GOP Conference will meet Monday at 6:30 to allow each official candidate a chance to speak to all Republican House members and try to win some over.
They will then hold an election by secret ballot on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.
Could Donalds become the next speaker of the House?
Yes: 69% (48 Votes)
No: 31% (22 Votes)
Presumably, the secret ballot would at least narrow down the list of candidates, with those garnering very few votes perhaps dropping out before the ultimate floor vote.
There was no indication yet of whether any of these candidates or potential candidates had any sort of clear advantage over the others. And there could always be more hats thrown into the ring before the noon Sunday deadline to file to run.
Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy threw his weight behind the majority whip, Emmer.
“He is the right person for the job,” the former House speaker said of Emmer in a statement. “He can unite the conference. He understands the dynamics of the conference. He also understands what it takes to win and keep a majority.”
Whether an endorsement from McCarthy helps Emmer or hurts him in the current environment among House Republicans is also anybody’s guess.
Jordan lost three floor votes, garnering fewer votes with each successive repetition, and then the House GOP Conference held a secret ballot vote later Friday on whether to keep him as the conference’s designee, which Jordan also lost, causing him to drop out of the race.
Several unnamed sources told NBC News that only 86 conference members had voted to keep him as the designee, versus 112 against.
“We need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be,” he told reporters after that ballot, adding that he had told conference members that it had been “an honor to be their speaker designee.”
